Exactly what I meant, but also a sudden elightenment of man or a Rennaisance. It seems like around 600-500 BC timeframe is the first time we know if in recorded history where man transcends savage survival and is beginning to think philosophically, about wanting more from life than mere existence. Writing exploded and you wonder if these things were thought before then and not written due to lack of technology, or if those things were just not commonly thought due a universal quest for mere sustenance and survival.
Just amazing. I would love to really know what happened.
The Teaching Company has a series about what they call the ‘Axial Age’.
Expanding the timeframe a bit and it is truly interesting that you have the Prophets Jeremiah, Ezekial, Isah and Daniel at nearly the same time as Confucius and Lao Tzu, and as Socrates, and Plato . Pretty much the basis of all philosophical thought for most of the world laid down within a couple of centuries. Most of the ideas with which humanity has contended with ever since.