6th century BC
The Axial Age: four civilizations think at once
What happened — and why
Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu — one generation
In India, China, Persia, and Greece, almost simultaneously, thinkers emerge who raise the question of the meaning of human life for the first time.
The philosophical cause
Pythagoras in Greece discovers that the world obeys number. In the East — that the world obeys suffering, or harmony.
Karl Jaspers will call this "the Axial Age" — the point from which all human spirituality is measured.
