The Moral Revolution and the Axial Age: Stuart-Glennie, Jaspers and the Origins of the Theory

• In Event: 209 - Theory Section Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Historical Sociology 2

Abstract

This paper reclaims John Stuart Stuart-Glennie’s claim to be the first to develop a fully articulated theory of what later became known as the axial age.

The theory of the Axial Age, of that period primarily between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, when new outlooks broke out across diverse civilizations, is associated with Karl Jaspers. In his 1949 book Jaspers claimed to be the first to develop a full theory of the phenomenon, despite a few earlier scholars who noted the facts, “but only marginally.” Yet 75 years earlier, in 1873, unknown to Jaspers and to contemporary scholars today, John Stuart Stuart-Glennie elaborated a fully developed and nuanced theory of what he termed “the Moral Revolution” to characterize the historical shift around roughly 600 BCE in a variety of civilizations, most notably ancient China, India, Judaism, and Greece, as part of a broader critical theory of history. He also presented his ideas to the Sociological Society of London in 1905. Lewis Mumford’s original contributions to the theory are also considered.

Author

• Eugene W. Halton, University of Notre Dame