THE SECOND AXIAL AGE: Collapse of Shared Meaning and the Rise of Relational Civilization
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The Second Axial Age argues that contemporary civilization is undergoing a structural transition as profound as the historical Axial Age. The paper demonstrates that shared meaning is collapsing not due to ideology or politics, but because the representational architecture that once stabilized collective reality has become incompatible with the global information environment. Through a precise analysis of collapse geometry, civilizational invariants, and a detailed case study of Greece, the manuscript shows how orientation, signal integrity, and responsibility alignment degrade under non‑reciprocal informational conditions. It then outlines the emergence of relational civilization — a meaning architecture grounded in contact, reciprocity, ecological coherence, and pattern alignment. The treatise concludes by situating humanity within a closed manifold, framing collapse and recovery as internal reconfigurations rather than catastrophic endpoints. It is a structural ontology of civilizational transformation.
Author: Bailey, Denis
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222144348
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