Does Martin Seligman think agency explains the axial age and human progress?

Yes. Seligman argues that between 1000 and 500 BCE, across Greece, the Hebrews and China, people gained a vocabulary of human agency, and progress in technology, medicine, the arts and politics followed. He points to Achilles being told to act by Athena in the Iliad versus the cunning Odysseus, and says an AI rating of agentic language across the Old Testament rises in a line that tracks innovation and living standards.

• Seligman says progress stalled when St. Augustine's view of arbitrary grace and predestination dominated the Middle Ages, until the Renaissance overturned it.
• In China, he says, progress broke out when collective and individual agency were in balance, and stagnated when the state crushed individual agency.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Hidden Brain (2026-09-21). Read the whole episode summary →

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