The axialage as the formative period of metaphysics and monotheism

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the context and the implications of K. Jaspers’ concept of the Axial Age as the formative period of metaphysics and monotheism and to assess the capability of this concept to justify the universalism of modernity. It is emphasized that the concept of the Axial Age was intended initially not only for the historical research, but also for the philosophical reconstruction of the world history. Hence, the consideration is focused on the changes in the structure of thinking that attended the formation of the new social fabric after the Axial Age and resulted in the emergence of metaphysics and monotheism. It is observed that just those changes could render possible prototyping the universalism that, however, became required and was actualized only in modernity. The structural similarity between metaphysics and monotheism as the universal patterns of unity is studied in connection with the analysis of the transition from the social frameworks that were based on immediate contacts to the mediated societal relationships. It is pointed out that the hierarchical structure of both metaphysics and monotheism as opposed to the disorderlyaggregations of the fuzzy images which are reputedly inherent in the so-called primitive mentality depends on the notion of binary oppositions. Therefore, the critique of the concept of hierarchy in the history of philosophy fair enough took the shape of the yearning for the overcoming of metaphysics and thus the concept of binary oppositions. In this connection, it is noticed that the renunciation of binarism would make the concept of the Axial Age optional. It causes the difficulties of distinguishing between the peculiar logic ofpostmodernity that seeks to blur every identity and the thinking that was formerly ascribed only to the societies which preceded the Axial Age. Thereby, the prototype of universalism that goes back to the Axial Age is brought into question.