The Axial Age is a name given by the philosopher Karl Jaspers to roughly the first millennium BCE, during which several remarkable moral teachers and founders of religions were active. Among the Axial Age figures the course will examine are Zarathustra, Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Mencius, the Buddha, Socrates, Micah, Hillel, and Jesus. Attention will also be given to the "pre-moral" era out of which they arose and what might be ironically called our current "post-moral" era, characterized by our ignoring all the insights of the Axial Age teachers.
