ABSTRACT This article studies cognitive mechanisms underlying the creation of the worldwide historical master narrative. The material taken for the study is the concept of the Axial Age introduced by the German philosopher Karl Jaspers. The narrative theory supported by the works of such researchers as Hayden White, Paul Ricoeur, Arthur Danto, JurijLotman, David Herman and others has been selected as a methodology. The purpose of this study is to define the role of a collision (conflict) as a cognitive mechanism in the creation of a master narrative plot and in the formation of a history-philosophical concept.