Under the Sign of the Other: Looking back to Europe's Origin in 'The Axial Age'

In distinction from Husserl, Heidegger, and Patocka, who, in order to overcome its current crisis, sought to confront Europe with its historical origin in Greece, Jaspers retraces Europe’s origin in The Origin and Goal of History back to what he terms the “Axial Period” between 800 and 200 BC. During this period the whole gamut of possibilities and principles that up to now have been operative for humanity emerged almost simultaneously, but also independently from one another, in three regions of the world, that is, in China, India, and the West. The essay analyzes the nature and structure of this event in which a break-through takes place by which these three distinct cultures transcend themselves, and raise themselves to the idea of universal mankind, and explores what this event means for Europe, which itself was not an integral part of that original constellation, and only gained world-historical relevance with the development of the European sciences by the late Middle Ages.