POLI 1001 Study Guide - Karl Jaspers, Axial Age, Existentialism
Document Summary
Notes 1: axial moment/age, the rise of subjectivity, phrase used by one of the fathers of existentialism: karl jaspers, the axial age is the spiritual process that took place between 800 and 200 bc. This is known as tribalism: human consciousness driven by the notion of we . We exist, not i : somewhere in (the axial age) emerges the concept of i or self . Why: we do not exactly know how. One example of how it happened: a hunter/gatherer begins to wonder why he does not get more reward for being the best hunter/gatherer in the tribe. He is focusing on himself, not the tribe as a whole: the creation of political consciousness, with this comes a change in human affairs. The person who is thinking of the i feels discomfort, as if he/she has lost something such as a sense of security and belonging. This is why jaspers describes this as the homeless spirit.
