Karl Jaspers on the axial period in history

Note 2. To the Subsection “6. Law of the Period of the Number Six

Karl Jaspers wrote: “It would seem that this axis of history is to be found in the period around 500 B.C., in the spiritual process that occurred between 800 and 200 BC. It is there that we meet with the most deepcut dividing line in history. Man, as we know him today, came into being. For short, we may style this the ‘Axial Period.’” The Origin and Goal of History, trans. Michael Bullock (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1976), 1