The Post-Axial Reconstruction of Meaning: Cognitive Architecture, Metaphysical Crisis, and Emergent Ecologies of the Sacred
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) October 27, 2026 Gemini Deep Research preprint
Contemporary civilization is navigating a structural phase transition comparable in scale and ontological depth to Karl Jaspers's first Axial Age (Achsenzeit, c. 800–200 BCE). Spanning the long modern arc from 1500 to 2100 CE, this "Second Axial" hinge is defined by the terminal exhaustion of inherited post-Axial institutions alongside an acute crisis of meaning, attention, and ecological...