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II. The Sacred Roots of the Axial Traditions

The term 'axial age' stems from Karl Jaspers's conception of the year 500 BCE as an 'axis' around which the rotation of world history accelerated, as it were.

The reason that philosophers appeared is that philosophers were able to break away from the more communal, mythological, and magical worldviews of the past and articulate new concepts such as the "moral consciousness of the individual", "time consciousness extending beyond the succession of remembered generations", and "the destiny of the individual". This is another topic I want to write on, particularly the Western contrast between Heraclitus and Job. We can easily contrast the work of Heraclitus to the more ancient mythical narratives and see a conception of philosophy emerge. See the some fragments of the Penguin translation I have near me.

The Word proves
those first hearing it
as numb to understanding
as the ones who have not heard

Yet all things follow from the Word.
Some blundering
with what I set before you,
try in vain with empty talk
to separate the essences of things
and say how each thing truly is.

And all the rest make no attempt.
They no more see
how they behave broad waking
than remember clearly
what they did asleep.

Now that we can travel anywhere,
we need no longer take the poets
and myth-makers for sure witnesses
about disputed facts.

That which always was,
and is, and will be everliving fire,
the same for all, the cosmos
made neither by god nor man,
replenishes in measure
as it burns away.

Let's also see a passage of Job, which comes later in the Bible but is theorized to be written from a much earlier time so is an "older" book. What is interesting, according to Girard in his Job, is that the book has some sedimentary layers added to it over the years. The middle part of the book is the oldest, and the fourth interlocutor and the beginning and ends of the book seem to be if not a second layer, a third layer. The core of Job features Job's "friends", who Girard points out are actually the mob trying to get Job to confess and play the role of scapegoat, similar to a Soviet mock trial. Job, exemplifying Jaspers's thesis, rejects these in favor of a new understanding, a philosophical understanding and methodology is developing. This also is a great example of Habermas's "discourse on faith and knowledge". Here is a passage that exemplifies some of the text of the "friends".

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad...

Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:
So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.
O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.
The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.
He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,
That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?
Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Unlike modern secular philosophy, the philosophies of the axial traditions were still rooted in religion, specifically being incorporated with ritual practice. Habermas notes that this is something that secular philosophy does not have and is a point of potential weakness for philosophy. Namely, ritual practice develops a communal and meaningful bond between others currently and a longer tradition that philosophy does not have anymore. Habermas ends this section outlining the next four chapters on the sacred roots.