Ideas That Changed the
World: The Great Schools, 600
BCE--100 CE
Slideshow #6
Review Questions
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WHAT is meant by the term axial age?
WHAT WERE the main areas of axial-age thinking in
Eurasia?
WHAT WERE the most important religious and
philosophical ideas that developed during the axial age?
WHAT SIMILARITIES developed among Chinese,
Greek, and Indian science and medicine during the axial
age?
HOW DID political pessimists differ from optimists in
their ideas about human nature and the role of
government?
WHY WAS the axial age confined to such a limited area
of the world?
What factors contributed to the development
of the Axial Age?
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Political fragmentation: China, Greece, India
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Economic basis: patronage, leisure, education
Questioning of tradition
Main areas of development: China, India,
Greece, Southwest Asia
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Need for new ideas
Survival of existing written records in these areas
Population growth, intensive economic
development
Axial Age Regional Developments
Greece / Early Philosophy
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Development of rationalism
 Atomists: Democritus
 Postulation of atoms, void, perishable nature of material
world
 Parmenides: Everything is one
 Socrates: “unexamined life isn’t worth living”
 Plato: belief in moral absolutes
 Aristotle: categorization of everything
 Breaking arguments down into syllogisms, equations
 Hippocrates: understanding of disease via observation,
diagnosis
Foundation of schools of thought
 Sophists: emphasis on rhetoric, circular reasoning
 Stoicism, Skepticsm
Academy of
Athens
Greek thought spread widely across the Mediterranean region. Romans were deeply influenced by the
philosophy of classical Greece. The Acropolis of Athens is recognizable in the background of this mosaic,
preserved in the ruins of Pompeii, south of Naples in Italy. The columns and gardens recall what the setting
of Plato’s Academy at Athens was really like.
Temple of Artemis. In Heraclitus’s day, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, in what is today Turkey, served
as a repository of books which citizens could consult.. The facade—the only surviving part of the library—is
modeled not on a temple but on a Greek theater, where knowledge, wisdom, intellect, and virtue played like
characters in a drama.
Delphi
Around Mount Parnassus, north of Athens, Greeks had many shrines consecrated to Earth and Nature. One of the
most important was the site of the Oracle at Delphi, where priestesses uttered prophecies. Nearby, the circular
sanctum known as the Tholos was built in the fourth century B.C.E., at or near the place where the Greeks’
predecessors had located the navel of the Mother-Goddess or, as we might now say, the center of the Earth.
Erectheion, Athens: on the north side of Acropolis.
Site of important religious rituals, and some of
Athens most ancient sacred relics.
Greek Philosophical Schools
New Religious Movements
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Zoroastrianism: begins, spreads through Persian Empire
 Dualism: Good/Evil dichotomy, Ahura Mazda vs. Ahriman
Judaism to Christianity
 Yahweh as basis for development of Monotheism
 Rules for life: “the Law” / Covenant
 Jesus, the Messiah and the importance of divine love
 Christianity spreads through the Roman Empire
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Aggressive conversion efforts
Zoroastrians
Though persecuted almost to extinction in Iran, the land of its birth, Zoroastrianism survives among exiled
communities, especially in India, the U.S., and Western Europe. Here Zoroastrian priests in London mark
the New Year by kindling sacred light.
Exile of the Jews. “The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria.” This relief from the palace of
the invading king seems to illustrate the scene described in the biblical Book of Kings (II.18:11), as soldiers
take prisoners from the fortress of Lachish, which the Assyrians captured in 701 B.C.E. Relief, Israel, 10th6th Century: Judean exiles carrying provisions. Detail of the Assyrian conquest of the Jewish fortified town of
Lachish (battle 701 BC). Part of a relief from the palace of Sennacherib at Niniveh, Mesopotamia (Iraq).
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.
Divine love. “I am the good shepherd,” said Jesus, according to the Gospel of John (10:14), “and I lay down
my life for my sheep.” During the persecutions that punctuated the first 300 years of the history of the
Church, Christian artists interpreted the New Testament’s many texts about “straying” and “lost” sheep as
metaphors for the souls of martyrs, whom Jesus gathered into his fold. "The Good Shepherd," marble,
height: as restored 99 cm, as perserved 55 cm, head 15.5 cm. Late 3rd century A. D. Vatican Museums, PioChristian Museum, Inv. 28590. Courtesy of the Vatican Museums.
Christian Symbols: third-century tombstone slab found in the
catacombs of Rome. Inscribed with some of the earliest
examples known of Christian symbols. The fish is a symbol of
Christianity to this day. "Ichthus," the Greek word for fish, is an
acronym for the Greek words that mean "Jesus Christ, Son of
God, Saviour." The anchor, positioned between the two fish, had
long been a symbol of safety among sailors.
India: Empire of the Spirit
Migration into Ganges region:
Combining beliefs of Aryan invaders, indigenous inhabitants
Vedic language evolves into Sanskrit
B. Central beliefs of Hinduism based upon Vedas:
Hymns (Rig Veda is oldest, 1400 BCE)
Brahmanas (commentaries) (1000 BCE)
Upanishads (mystical speculations) (500 BCE)
C. Brahmanism evolves into Hinduism, with main concepts:
dharma: obeying religious and moral laws
moksha: spiritual release, liberation from samsara (reincarnation)
karma: actions/deeds create past, present and future experiences
maya: illusion of reality; duality of consciousness/material world
Brahman—unchanging, infinite, transcendent reality (transpersonal)
atman: one’s true self, the individual component of Brahman
life cycles of individuals: 4 stages of life from student to ascetic
India
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Reactions to Brahmanism
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Jainism: Mahavira and the ascetic way of life
Nonviolence (Ahimsa) centrally importance
 Focus on sanctity of all life
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Buddhism: Gautama Siddhartha
Ideas are spread over trade routes, especially to China
 Nirvana
 Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha
 Four Noble Truths: truth of nature of suffering, its
origins, its cessation, and the way leading to cessation- Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action,
livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration
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The Buddha’s first sermon, depicted here in a relief of the late second or early third century C.E. The Buddha
squats under a lotus tree, on a pedestal decorated with a prayer wheel. The attentive figures who stand on small
pedestals among the onlookers who surround him are probably the patrons who commissioned this sculpture.
Kushanese art—from the mountainous northwest of the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan— combines
influences from India, Persia, Greece, and China, demonstrating the vitality of cultural exchange across Eurasia.
Scenes from the Life of Buddha, late 2nd-early 3rd century, Kushan dynasty, Stone. Courtesy of the Freer
Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
The Buddha’s Footprints. This carved slab formed part of a Buddhist shrine in India. It depicts
the Buddhapada, or footprints of the Buddha. Tradition holds that the Buddha’s feet were
imprinted with 108 auspicious symbols. Elaborate cults developed around the Buddhapada,
particularly in south and southeast Asia.
Ayurvedic medicine. This medical textbook, first published in 1593, and based on The Canon of Medicine
written by the great Muslim scholar Avicenna early in the eleventh century, is still used by students at the
Unani Medical College in Hyderabad, India. Ayurvedic treatments are usually herbal, although diet and
exercise are also important remedies. The illustration and text shown here concern the muscles of the
human body.
China
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Confucianism: hierarchy, engagement with society,
emphasis on virtue, learning, obedience
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Junzi : gentleman of culture, integrity, education
Daoism: focus on the “path,” disengagement from
society, emphasis on virtue, following nature
Legalism: people inherently bad and that unquestioning
obedience essential, belief in exemplary punishment
Mozi and Xunzi: argued for universal love and that
progress and freedom could create human goodness
respectively
Figure 6.3 Network of Chinese Philosophers, 400-200 B.C.E
Adapted from R. Collins, The Sociology of Philosophers (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1998) p. 55.
Daoism
Nature worship. This rare Daoist scroll, from about 1150 C.E. only a portion of which is reproduced here,
depicts some of the feats of the “Eight Immortals,” the most famous characters in Daoist folklore. The
serene landscape is typical of Daoist painting.
Today’s Question
Does the rise of fundamentalism threaten science?
Consider
 That axial-age philosophy, religion, and science were closely
interrelated and supportive of each other
 That science and fundamentalist religion have split decisively
in the last two centuries, and that fundamentalism of all sorts
is on the rise
 That fundamentalist religion refuses to accept some scientific
findings, such as evolutionary biology, and attempts to prevent
others, such as stem cell research.
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Is scientific progress under threat of being severely
hampered or brought to a halt by fundamentalism?