Between facts and myth: Karl Jaspers and the actuality of the axial age

Karl Jaspers’s axial age thesis refers to a demythologizing revolution in worldviews that took place in the first millennium bce. Although his philosophy has been pejoratively described as ‘Werk ohne Wirkung’, this idea has attracted considerable scholarly attention in recent years. This article aim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of philosophy and theology
Main Author: Smith, Andrew (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2015]
In: International journal of philosophy and theology
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Jaspers, Karl 1883-1969 / Philosophy of history / Axial Age / Demythologizing
RelBib Classification:TA History
VA Philosophy
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Karl Jaspers’s axial age thesis refers to a demythologizing revolution in worldviews that took place in the first millennium bce. Although his philosophy has been pejoratively described as ‘Werk ohne Wirkung’, this idea has attracted considerable scholarly attention in recent years. This article aims to critically engage with the very notion of the axial age by looking first at contextual issues, then at the key claims Jaspers makes, before examining the actuality of the thesis and the problem of its characterization as an ‘age’. The conclusion is that Jaspers’s attempt to unify the complex processes of demythologization under the notion of the axial age has produced a myth, and that this continues to have consequences today.
ISSN:2169-2327
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal of philosophy and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/21692327.2015.1136794