The Leap of Human Thought: 800-200 B.C.E.

Many books have been written on philosophies and religions in the East and the West. I wanted to offer something of an overview, brief and easily understood; so I chose dialogue form, between a retired professor and an ordinary student. The study had also to be compressed within reasonable limits; and to my delight I realized that the lives of many great thinkers were to be found in the narrow compass of only 600 years, namely 800-200 B.C.E., known as the Axial Age. This period covered the lives of the Hebrew prophets, Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, the early figures in Daoism, and the leading Greeks.