We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from INTERMEZZO
The Individual and the ‘Distant Power’
The sixth century is an important turning-point not only for Israel, but a so for a large part of the ancient world. It is the so-called ‘axial age’, marked by the rising of a series of innovators (personified symbols of general tendencies in their respective communities): in China, Confucius (550–480), in India, Buddha (560–480), in Iran, Zoroaster (end of the seventh century), in Greece the Ionian philosophers and ‘scientists’, who began philosophy, tragedy and historiography. In Israel we have the major ‘ethical’ prophets (such as Ezekiel and Second Isaiah) of the exilic period. The protagonists and tendencies of the ‘axial age’ are different from each other, because of their cultural background and the specific traditions and tendencies of each culture; also different are the innovative directions that they take, ranging from rationality to ethics. Not all historians agree with the concept of the ‘axial age’, nor of its value as a cognitive tool, that risks becoming something meta-historical if it is not set against the background of precise historical conditions. If it is not merely a coincidence, or a curiosity, the same fruit ought to spring from the same kind of soil, since it produces the same deepening of the role of the individual, signifying a major break with previous ways of life.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
