“Second-order” culture & the Axial Age II

26 Jul 2019 11:00 am – 1:00 pm MDT
Virtual

26 July 2019 @ 1PM EST
ZOOM video conference:ย https://zoom.us/j/711610894

 

The present itinerary

  • brief recap of anything left unexplored from Chapters 1 -3,

@Michael_Stumpf,ย @patanswer,ย @johnnydavis54ย andย @achrononย will each take a turn โ€œleading offโ€ with an individual chapter, sharing thoughts, reflections, and/or experiences in reaction to specific chapters, which loosely fit the current group โ€˜rolesโ€™ (kinesthetics / history / activism-vision / hermeneutics):

  • 4 โ€œEmbodiment, Transcendence, and Contingencyโ€ (Michael)
  • 5 โ€œThe Axial Age and Global Historyโ€ (TJ)
  • 6 โ€œThe Buddhaโ€™s Meditative Tranceโ€ (John)
  • 7 โ€œThe Idea of Transcendenceโ€ (Ed)

Seed Questions

  • Q1
  • Q2

Seed Questions from first discussion:

  • What is second-order culture? How can we use our knowledge well to โ€œpresenceโ€ the best future?
  • What is the Axial Age? What about this piece of the past speaks best to our situation(s) today?

Context, Backstory, and Related topics

No reading is required to join in, but if you know absolutely nothing about the Axial Age this very brief summary of the original thought by Jaspers himself might prove helpful:

Commentary

The Axial Age of Human History:A Base for the Unity of Mankind – Commentary

Philosophy strives to interpret history as a single totality.View Post

Working bibliography

(These โ€˜may come up in discussion, may notโ€™ – sweat not!):

-Bondarenko, Dmitri M. & Ken Baskin (2011) โ€œLiving through a Second Axial Age: Notes in the Time of an Irreversible Global Cultural Transformationโ€,ย Globalistics: Ways to Strategic Stability and the Problem of Global Governance Conference 54ย , Moscow, available atย https://www.academia.edu/1907699/Living_through_a_Second_Axial_Age_Notes_in_the_Time_of_an_Irreversible_Global_Cultural_Transformationย 
-Bellah, Robert N. (2011)ย Religion in Human Evolutionย (Belknap Press)
-Black, Anthony (2008) โ€œThe โ€˜Axial Periodโ€™: What Was It and What Does It Signify?โ€,ย The Review of Politicsย , Vol. 70,ย #1ย (Winter), pp. 23-39, available atย https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/rp_axial_08.pdfย 
-Donald, Merlin (1993) โ€œPrรฉcis of Origins of the Modern Mindโ€,ย Behavioral and Brain Sciencesย 16, pp. 737-791, available atย https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0f26/24745758b4e7ab16f021c674fe0de44561e0.pdfย 
-Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. (ed.) (1986)ย The Origins & Diversity of Axial Age Civilizationsย , Albany, State University of New York Press.
-Gebser, Jean (1985)ย The Ever-Present Originย , Athens, Ohio University Press.
-Graeber, David (2014)ย Debt: The First Five-Thousand Yearsย , London, Melville House, in particular Chapter 9 โ€œThe Axial Ageโ€.
-Bellah, Robert N. & Hans Joas, (eds.) (2012)ย The Axial Age and its Consequencesย , Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
-Kripal, Jeffrey J. (2019)ย The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledgeย , New York, Bellevue Literary Press.
-Lรถffler, Davor (2018) โ€œDistributing Potentiality: Post-capitalist Economics and the Generative Time Rรฉgimeโ€,ย Journal for Politics, Gender and Cultureย , Vol. 15,ย #1-2, pp. 8-44.
-Ong, Walter J., (1982, 3rd ed., 2012)ย Orality and Literacyย , London and New York, Routledge.
-Wendt, Alexander
(2003) โ€œWhy a World State is Inevitableโ€,ย European Journal of International Relationsย , Vol. 9(4), pp. 491-542.
(2015)ย Quantum Mind and Social Scienceย , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press