From: jimruttshow8596
The Axial Age, a period roughly between 800 and 200 BCE, represents a profound shift in human consciousness and societal organization that continues to influence modern thought. It emerged from the ashes of a widespread collapse that marked the end of an earlier era, leading to new ways of understanding the self, the world, and one’s place within it [00:54:05].
Precursors: The Bronze Age Collapse
Prior to the Axial Age, a catastrophic event known as the Bronze Age Collapse occurred around 1200-1100 BCE [00:50:55]. This collapse was more significant than the fall of the Roman Empire in terms of the number of cities and trade networks that ceased to exist, effectively ending millennia-old civilizations like those in Babylon, the Hittite Empire, and ancient Egypt [00:51:01]. The disappearance of “dinosaur kingdoms” created a vacuum that allowed for extensive social experimentation, akin to how mammals diversified after the asteroid impact that ended the dinosaurs [00:52:51]. This period of disruption and reorganization set the stage for the unique developments of the Axial Age [00:59:56].
Emergence of the Axial Age
The Axial Age is characterized by the development and widespread adoption of new psychotechnologies [00:53:35]. These include alphabetic literacy, numeracy, and coinage [00:53:46]. Unlike physical tools, psychotechnologies are “cultural tools” that alter how people make meaning, both semantically and in the sense of finding meaning in life [01:16:11]. Literacy, for instance, is a prototypical example that massively empowers cognition [01:17:23]. The internalization of these tools fostered what is called “second-order thinking” [00:54:18].
Second-Order Thinking and Self-Awareness
Second-order thinking refers to a critically aware form of metacognition, the ability to become aware of one’s own mind [00:54:24]. This newfound cognitive capacity allowed individuals to note pervasive errors, patterns of self-deception, and the double-edged nature of the mind’s meaning-making machinery [00:55:00]. It enabled a capacity for self-transcendence, self-correction, and forming better relationships with the world [00:55:17].
The Two-Worlds Model
A key outcome of the Axial Age was the pervasive emergence of a “two-worlds mythology” [00:55:36]. This model posits a dichotomy between a “fallen,” “decadent” everyday world, characterized by self-deception and violence, and a “better,” “more real,” or “realizable” world, where suffering is reduced, and individuals can assume a “more full and better identity” [00:55:38]. This concept could be understood metaphysically as a heaven, or as a utopic future [00:56:14].
While acknowledged as a foundational metaphor, this two-worlds model is also seen as problematic [01:03:31]. It provided a powerful framework for cultivating wisdom and self-transcendence but is deemed “poor language for ultimately trying to explain reality” [01:03:25], especially as the scientific worldview has largely dismantled its literal interpretation [01:03:57]. Historically, this model has also been used perniciously by various religious institutions to exploit and manipulate people, for example, by justifying earthly suffering with the promise of heavenly reward [01:05:33].
Key Outcomes of the Axial Age
World Religions
The Axial Age is noted for the simultaneous appearance of many of the world’s major religions [00:56:50]. This includes Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism, with Christianity and Islam later emerging as its offspring [00:56:55]. These diverse spiritual traditions, despite their differences, shared a common thread in their pursuit of deeper meaning and truth.
The Invention of Philosophy
Concurrently, in the West, the Axial Age saw the “invention of philosophy” [00:57:05]. Thinkers like Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and ultimately Socrates and Plato, laid the foundations for Western philosophical inquiry [00:57:09].
Pre-Socratic Thinkers
- Thales: Often considered the first philosopher, Thales introduced a new way of thinking by seeking an underlying substance and force to explain the world through observation and reason, rather than relying on narrative explanations [01:28:15].
- Pythagoras: Credited with coining the terms “philosophy” and “cosmos,” Pythagoras appears to have integrated a shamanic tradition into the Greek world, fusing it with a mathematical understanding of music and the universe [01:29:11]. He is also noted for creating the first clear instance of a philosophical religious community [01:29:45].
- Heraclitus and Parmenides: These thinkers were centrally important for Plato’s development of philosophical thought [01:30:12].
Altered States of Consciousness
It is important to note that many of these early philosophers, including Plato and Pythagoras, are believed to have engaged in practices that induced altered states of consciousness [01:30:30]. Examples include the priestess at Delphi (possibly inhaling methane gas) and the Eleusinian Mysteries (potentially involving psychedelics or other means of inducing altered states like sleep deprivation or drumming) [01:30:35]. Socrates himself was known to enter trance-like states, sometimes for extended periods [01:32:10]. These practices may have afforded them extraordinary abilities or insights.
Socrates and Self-Knowledge
Socrates’s central watchword was “know thyself” [01:33:20]. This did not mean understanding one’s autobiography or a pre-packaged destiny [01:34:33]. Instead, it meant becoming aware of the “machinery of the self” and directing one’s “selfing” (turning the self into a verb) towards becoming a wiser, more virtuous person [01:35:15]. For Socrates, knowing oneself was intertwined with knowing others and understanding the world better [01:35:41].
Socrates criticized the natural philosophers for providing facts without the wisdom necessary for self-transcendence [01:36:04]. He sought “transformative truths” that were both disclosed through transformation and that, in turn, propelled further transformation [01:36:44].
Critique of the Sophists
Socrates famously challenged the Sophists, who pioneered rhetoric as a psychotechnology [01:37:31]. The Sophists, in Socrates’s view, promised powerful transformations based on highly salient but often untruthful presentations [01:37:52]. This is likened to “bullshitting,” where there is a disregard for truth in favor of making something appear appealing or convincing [01:38:16]. For Socrates, such practices led to pervasive individual and group self-deception and contributed to demagoguery [01:39:51].
It is impossible to “lie to oneself” in a strict sense, as lying requires knowing a proposition is false while attempting to manipulate another into believing it true [01:41:22]. However, one can “bullshit oneself” by directing one’s attention to make certain things salient and ignore others, leading to self-deceptive beliefs [01:42:31]. This process is exacerbated by social media platforms that are designed to grab and hold attention with unrealistic images, fostering self-deception and self-destructive behaviors [01:44:09].
Impact on Modern Thought
The Meaning Crisis
The meaning crisis in contemporary society is characterized by symptoms such as increased rates of anxiety, depression, loneliness, addiction, and even suicide, which can stem directly from a perception of meaninglessness [00:08:26]. Reactive responses include the “virtual exodus” (preferring virtual to real-world living) and the politicization of everything with religious overtones [00:09:14]. More positive responses include the mindfulness revolution and the revival of ancient philosophies like Stoicism and Buddhism [00:09:49]. All these can be seen as symptoms of an underlying problem regarding meaning in life [00:10:37].
The Axial Age’s two-worlds model contributes to this crisis by potentially fostering unrealistic expectations about reality [01:03:31]. For example, modern romanticism, influenced by a receding Christianity, attempts to burden romantic relationships with the meaning and fulfillment previously provided by God, religion, and tradition [01:18:36]. This often leads to tremendous suffering because no human can meet such inflated expectations [01:18:50].
Wisdom and Cognitive Flexibility
The Axial Age’s emphasis on wisdom, defined as the capacity to see through illusion into reality [01:03:34], remains highly relevant. This involves developing cognitive flexibility, or the ability to “change frame” [02:22:34]. The “nine-dot problem” illustrates how implicit constraints limit what is considered salient or relevant, and solving it requires breaking the frame and adopting a new perspective [02:39:41].
Concepts such as participatory knowing (the mutual shaping between an individual and their environment [03:08:25]) and perspectival knowing (understanding one’s state of mind and situational awareness [02:42:30]) are crucial to this cognitive flexibility. Mindfulness practices, for instance, are psychotechnologies that train attention to break inappropriate frames and make new ones, enhancing cognitive flexibility and insight [00:45:07].
Flow States and Meaning
Flow states, described as “optimal experiences,” are moments of peak performance and profound reward where individuals are completely immersed in a task that slightly exceeds their skill level [00:35:36]. In a flow state, the “nattering nanny narrative ego” falls silent, and a sense of “at-one-ment” with the environment emerges [00:37:50]. The universal nature and adaptive function of flow states suggest their importance for human well-being [00:39:18]. The cultivation of wisdom, as promoted in the Axial Age, can lead to such states, as can mindfulness practices [00:49:51].
The Role of Myth and Faith
The Axial Age relied on myths as powerful expressions of perennial or pressing patterns relevant to human existence [01:10:50]. A modern example is the zombie myth, which attempts to express the meaning crisis but is considered a “failed myth” because it does not offer clear guidance for alleviation [01:12:38]. Successful myths, in contrast, provide guidance for individuals to enter into right relationship with enduring problems [01:13:16].
The concept of faith also takes on a richer meaning beyond simply “believing ridiculous things for which there is no evidence” [01:13:55]. Instead, faith can be understood as an “endeavor to go through an ongoing process of cognitive development” to maintain a “continuity of cognitive contact” with others, oneself, and the world, leading to mutually beneficial relationships and a sense of being “on course” [01:14:41]. This notion reconnects faith with love as a “mutually accelerating disclosure” and reciprocal opening [01:16:57].
Modern Relevance: A Kairos Moment
The current meaning crisis is considered a modern kairos moment [01:24:28]. Kairos, a Greek term, refers to a turning point or a critical juncture in complex systems where a constellation of factors creates an instability, offering the possibility to significantly steer or redirect the entire system [01:22:14]. Just as Socrates’s revolution redirected Western civilization, the contemporary meaning crisis presents an opportunity for a significant transformation of humanity’s future history [01:24:01]. This places a moral obligation on us to deeply understand the situation and cultivate wisdom for effective intervention [01:24:51].
The Axial Age’s emphasis on seeking transformative truths and cultivating virtue, particularly the meta-virtue of wisdom, remains a primary existential pursuit [01:51:13]. It offers a path to reliably experience that one’s life is “worth living” by finding sufficient meaning in life to compensate for unavoidable suffering, distress, and pain [01:50:56].