Проблема формирования многополярного мира и «осевое время» истории (к 140-летию со дня рождения К. Ясперса)

Abstract

The contemporary history of the 20th and early 21st centuries turned out to be saturated and even oversaturated with major geopolitical events of military, economic, political, and cultural nature. In accordance with the well-known law of the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, it is quite appropriate to speak of the changing nature of world history itself, an active process of transformation of its value bases. The institutionalization of new values gives rise not only to a conflict between the old and the new (tradition and innovation), but also between the bearers of such values, which is eloquently evidenced by the escalating confrontation between the collective West and other centers of world development. Such turning points in history can stretch for tens and hundreds of years both in its diachronic-ontological space and in the real geopolitical dimension. In the mid-20th century an interesting idea of “axial time” by the German philosopher K. Jaspers appeared within the framework of the philosophy of history. The relevance of this idea in modern conditions, as well as the possibilities of its theoretical and subject-practical use, are of considerable interest for modern humanitarian science. The article attempts to rethink the true meaning of Jaspers’ philosophical views on the historical process, the mechanism of history and historical time on the basis of a comparative analysis of this idea.