- The Axial Age - How New Answers to Old Questions Transformed the World
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Some twenty-five hundred years ago across the globe a new generation of thinkers and do-ers arose who were dismayed and discouraged by the chaos and violence that was sometimes all too dominant in their societies. This new generation of philosophers was able to imagine a world that could be different, and they began to influence others and to teach about a new way of being. Between about 800 and 300 BCE profound changes in schools of thought and societies gave rise to new ideas that have changed and continue to change the world. In Persia, there was Zoroaster. In India Vedantic Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism began transforming people’s lives. Confucius and Lao-Tse in China began to teach about new ways of living. The concept of monotheism transformed Judaism in the Ancient Middle East, and in Greece new ideas of polity gave rise to the idea of democracy. Although rooted in a distant past, these ideas reshaped our world profoundly and continue to resonate in the lives of people today. In this course we will study these radical movements, considering what came before them, how they arose, and the many ways in which they are still reshaping our world today.
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