Ideas · c. 6th–5th centuries BCE
The Axial Age thinkers
Bodh Gaya (Bihar, India) and across Eurasia
Within a few centuries, thinkers across Eurasia laid the foundations of lasting religions and philosophies: the Buddha (enlightened at Bodh Gaya; his dates are debated, c. 563–483 or c.
480–400 BCE) and Mahavira in India, Confucius (traditionally 551–479 BCE) and, according to tradition, Laozi in China, the Hebrew prophets in Israel, and Greek philosophers from Heraclitus and Parmenides to Plato. In 1949 the philosopher Karl Jaspers named this period, roughly the 8th to 3rd centuries BCE, the Axial Age.
Why it mattered
Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Daoism, the prophetic tradition of Judaism and Greek philosophy still shape the ethics and beliefs of billions of people; scholars debate whether this was one connected shift or a convenient label for separate developments.
Related
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