Georg Friedrich Kersting, Faust in his Study

5,530 words

Part 4 of 4 (Part 3 here)

Definition of “Axial thought”

The Axial Age idea is the most concerted effort to retain aspects of the idea of progress while disallowing Western civilization from claiming to be the most progressive in the sciences, technology, cultural creativity, and forms of state organization. This idea has historical merits. (more…)

The Mask of Agamemnon

4,700 words

Part 3 of 4 (Part 2 here, Part 4 here)

Rituals in simple mythic cultures

According to Bellah, humans express their highest values and cultural practices in those activities we define as “play” and “ritual,” because these activities are performed when humans are in a “relaxed” state away from evolutionary pressures. (more…)

2,468 words

Part 2 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)

“New capacities” under conditions of “relaxed selection”

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Robert N. Bellah, theorist of the Axial Age

3,787 words

Part 1 of 4

Only European peoples have made history and discovered the idea of time, and this is why the idea of progress is uniquely European: Only European history has been characterized by progress, and there can be no conception of historical time and no history without progression or without man becoming conscious of his role in the making of history, as well as the realization that only the mind can be the adjudicator of the truth. (more…)