4 The Axial Age 500 BC
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Transcript 4 The Axial Age 500 BC
The Axial Age
presentation #1
500 BC – 100 AD
Thoughts, Thinkers, and Empires
Solve problems of human nature
Identify human nature
Social and political solutions
Iran’s Zoroaster
Approx. 600 BC give or take 100 years
Dualist religion Zoroastrianism (IDEA #7)
Ahura Mazda vs. Ahriman
Light vs. Dark
Dominates Iran for 1000 years
Spreads outward to influence all other thinkers
of the Axial Age
Zoroaster
(from Raphael’s School of Athens)
Upishands
India c. 600 BC
Basis of early Hinduism
Universe eternal and uncreated
Reality exists outside the senses
Reincarnation (IDEA #8)
India’s Sages
Mahavira
c. 600 BC
Jainism
Siddhartha Guatama
The Buddha
c. 550 BC
Escape from desire
Nirvana = extinction of the self (IDEA #9)
China’s Sages
Lao Tzu c. 450 BC
Warring States Period
Detach from the world to avoid suffering
Salvation in another world, not just survival in this
(IDEA #10)
Use power of mind and rituals
Confucius
c. 500 BC
Loyalty to family and state
Lao Tzu
Confucius and his disciples
Hebrew Philosophy/Religion
Jews of the Levant (Asia’s Med. coast)
Inhabit war zone between Egypt and Mes.
Pastoral people (herders)
Early tribal religion (like Mesopotamians)
Est. two warring kingdoms
Israel
Judah
Conquered in 580 BC by Babylonia
King Nebuchadnezzar
Deported Jews (Babylonian Captivity)
Diaspora
Attempt to maintain identity led to codifying religious law
(IDEA #11)
Old/Hebrew Testament
Superior tribal god morphs into 1 true God
(IDEA #12)
Lack of power in political sphere led to belief
that suffering = punishment for sin (IDEA #13)
Living according to God’s Law would lead to
reward
Immortality
Relief from sinfulness
Elimination of evil
Empire over enemies
Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus last great teacher of the Axial Age
Died c. 33 AD
Independent Jewish rabbi with radical
message
Purge priesthood of corruption
Cleanse temple of money lending practices
Salvation comes from grace (IDEA #14)
Personal connection w/ God rather than law
Kristus = Greek for “Messiah” or “Anointed One”
The Last Supper
by Leonardo Da Vinci
Greek Teachers of 4th Century BC
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Socrates
Plato and Aristotle
from Raphael's The School of Athens
Big Ideas of the Axial Age
Creation (IDEA #15)
Invention of the concept of “nothing” or “zero”
Earlier myths simply redistributed pre-existing matter
“Big Bang” Theory
Brahma spinning Universe like a spider
Creation by intellectual not physical act
Thought
Emotion
Logos
Word
Now the fundamental principle of world philosophy
Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu
Monotheism (IDEA #12)
Previous religions diverse and polytheistic
Dualism (Persia)
Hierarchical (Greece)
Multiplicity = Unity (Hinduism)
Monotheism develops early in Judaism
Yahweh
Treasure too precious to share with Gentiles
Abrahamic tradition now most pop. in world
Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Divine Love (IDEA #14)
Begins with doctrines of unselfishness
common to many religions
Mozi in China
Brahmanism (world is an illusion)
Greek (world is divine)
Confucianism (world is neutral)
Buddhism (world is transient)
Zoroastrianism (world is evil)
Christianity (world is good)
Divine Love cont.
Led to belief that humans are divinely special
Previous thinkers tended to see all living
things as equal
Jainists
Southern Italian philosophers
New hierarchical structures
Greece (Aristotle)
China (Xunzi)
Christianity pop. because it did not restrict
Divine Love to a single people or race
New Political Thought
Debate regarding basic view of human nature
Optimists (man is intrinsically good)
(IDEA #16)
Pessimists (man is intrinsically evil)
(IDEA #17)
Pessimists
Strengthen state to protect man from himself
Plato
Censorship
Repression
Militarism
Extreme communism
Selective breeding (eugenics)
Deception of people by the state
Rigid class structure
All power in the hands of philosopher-kings
(Guardians) (IDEA #18)
Intellectual superiority
Heredity and education
Plato’s Classes
More Pessimists
Legalism in China (4th Century BC)
Law is right regardless of ethics (IDEA #19)
Obedience is all that matters
“goodness” is irrelevant, only “order” matters
No equating human law w/ divine law
Reaction to inability of Confucianism and Daoism to control
Warring States
Severe punishments
Anticipation of modern fascism
Glorification of “order” and “war”
Praised agriculture
Anti-capitalism
Suppression of the individual in subordination to the state
Political Optimists
Confucianism
Function of state to liberate subjects to fullest
States not working in best interest of subjects
should be rebelled against
State obligated to subjects, not subjects to
state (IDEA #20)
Indian Sages
Rulers/kings elected by aristocrats (IDEA #21)
Usually hundreds or thousands of voters
Optimists cont.
Daoists
Ruler’s job is to enforce virtue
Must lead by example
Greek optimists
States as practical methods
Experiments
Republican
Aristocratic
Democratic
True democracy is dangerous
Best gov. = flexible aristocracy limited by laws (IDEA #22)
Aristotle’s combination government
Romans
United States?
Still more Optimists
Jesus as a political subversive
“Render unto Caesar” Political irony (IDEA
#23)
Welcomed social outcasts from Jewish system
Leads to political execution
Challenging Illusions
Debate over Appearance vs. Reality
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Attempts to “know” true reality
Mathematics
Indian sages come up with concept of infinity (IDEA #24)
Greeks find incalculable ratios
Pi
Golden mean (approximately 1.618)
Underpin descriptions of the universe
Pythagoras c. 550 BC (IDEA #25)
Believed universe made of numbers
“5” and “2” exist even if there is nothing to count
Result is “Rationalism” (distrust of the senses)
Reason will find truth and solve problems
Reason
Parmenides c. 500 BC
Geometry = reality
“a perfect triangle, like god has never been seen”
all objects like this (IDEA #25)
Chinese Paradoxes
thought its pure because not filtered through senses
Zeno
1/2 paradoxes
Aristotle’s exposition on reason taught western world
how to think (IDEA #26)
syllogism
(Nyaya school in India similar)
Science
Also distrust of senses
No differentiation between natural and supernatural
until Chinese 679 B.C. (IDEA #27)
attempts to explore “natural” to dig out superstition.
inanimate substances have no wills
Greek science rooted in magic
nature worship encouraged natural explanation
developed scientific method to know gods better.
Science cont.
led to Greek scientific achievements
Aristotle’s biological texts
Archimedes principles of mechanics C. 250 B.C.
C. 200 B.C. Eratosthenes calculated almost exactly the
size of the planet
Chinese Science ( systematic investigation of nature)
from Daoist nature worship
avoided theory in favor of observation to avoid
contamination of reason
Chinese science weak on theory and heavy on
technology.
Eratosthenes Formula
Archimedes
Medicine
Hippocrates
balance 4 humors
C. 500 B.C.
Phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile
Phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine, choleric
diet, vomiting, laxatives, bloodletting
scientifically based
Indian C. 550 B.C.
Susutra
charaka
Skepticism
world might be purposeless
China
Liezi
“Mosquito”
Wang Chong
Greeks Epicurus
imaginary world of gods
nothing to hope/fear
atomic theory
Romans
Sextus Empiricus
man invented gods as a form of social control
Stoicism (Greeks)
Zeno C. 400 B.C.
Nature morally neutral
fatalism
indifference
Similar to Buddism