Why the Greeks?
Why the Greeks?
Two thousand and five hundreds years ago Greek philosophers raised some fundamental questions about the nature of the world and reality, questions that l reverberate to this day. The theories they came up with were not dissimilar to those of modern science. The rise of Greek philosophy and maths was an extraordinary historical event that set the pace for Western civilization.
I never came across a satisfactory explanation as to why it happened in Greece. Why were not the same philosophical questions raised in Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, or China?
I guess that it might have been due to the political structure of Greek society, that is, the city-state, citizens’ freedom, and relaxed theology. Wide seafaring might also have been a contributing factor. In other words: it might have been the case of the pluralism of Greek civilization vs the absolutism of other civilizations of the same time.
Note: Sometime ago’ I posted the question in the G+philosophy site, it raised objections from people who claimed that I belittled the philosophical and scientific quest of other culture of that time. I am sure that there were philosophers contemplating basic questions of metaphysics in other cultures but none compares in width, depth, and sheer intensity, to that of ancient Greece, and none impacted on the world in the way. Did other cultures of the same time have the equivalents of Aristoteles, Plato, Pythagoras, Democritus, Archimedes and Euclid? I am still awaiting an explanation of what made the Greek so unique.
Two thousand and five hundreds years ago Greek philosophers raised some fundamental questions about the nature of the world and reality, questions that l reverberate to this day. The theories they came up with were not dissimilar to those of modern science. The rise of Greek philosophy and maths was an extraordinary historical event that set the pace for Western civilization.
I never came across a satisfactory explanation as to why it happened in Greece. Why were not the same philosophical questions raised in Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, or China?
I guess that it might have been due to the political structure of Greek society, that is, the city-state, citizens’ freedom, and relaxed theology. Wide seafaring might also have been a contributing factor. In other words: it might have been the case of the pluralism of Greek civilization vs the absolutism of other civilizations of the same time.
Note: Sometime ago’ I posted the question in the G+philosophy site, it raised objections from people who claimed that I belittled the philosophical and scientific quest of other culture of that time. I am sure that there were philosophers contemplating basic questions of metaphysics in other cultures but none compares in width, depth, and sheer intensity, to that of ancient Greece, and none impacted on the world in the way. Did other cultures of the same time have the equivalents of Aristoteles, Plato, Pythagoras, Democritus, Archimedes and Euclid? I am still awaiting an explanation of what made the Greek so unique.
Comments (15)
My off-the-cuff guess is that most well developed cultures (and the Greeks were not the only one) experience episodes of literary and philosophical high achievement. What makes these episodes enduring is that they get transmitted to succeeding cultures. Greek heritage passed to the Roman Empire. Had the Greeks been swamped by some horse-riding horde indifferent to Greek culture, we probably wouldn't be talking about Aristotle.
On the other hand, it seems to take felicitous combinations of conditions to produce high culture: literacy and numeracy; a minimum of stability over enough time; sufficient prosperity to afford speculative thought; a tolerant state; a sufficiently large and interested public to support and sustain cultural achievement, and so on.
The Greeks were high achievers. They were special. They were at 'the head of the class'. Other cultures could have been contenders but were less fortunate.
Yes, this is an important point. We don't even know what was lost without a trace - the Greek civilization was very fortunate in that respect. Babylonian civilization was influential too, and it left behind lots of very durable clay tablets (most still waiting to be analyzed), and the Babylonian script was deciphered, so at least now we can take stock of their achievements. Minoan civilization was also highly advanced, but it was more isolated, and Minoan script still hasn't been deciphered. Other civilizations were even less fortunate in what they transmitted and what they left behind.
Perhaps the same answer can also serve for the question "Why Christianity" (why is it the world's largest religion).
It's not so much a question of "why the Greeks", as it is a question of "why the Athenians", in my opinion. Yes, I know that the Milesian school, the pythagoreans and the Eleatics (to name a few) precede the Athenian period, but the sustained interest in philosophy certainly had Athens as a center. The reason Athens was such a center of philosophical activity seems to stem from the link to the goddess Athena, who was regarded as the patron of philosophy. As such, philosophy and philosophers in general held a special place within Athenian society.
OK, but why was there a god/goddess of philosophy in the Egyptian, Sumerian, or Indian pantheon.
I think the reason might be that free thinking was not possible under the rulers and clergy of those cultures.
That makes sense.
Like how spartan culture and government encouraged creating the best army.
This book is pretty good if you want to read about chinese philosophy.
I also recommend some books on indian philosophy if you want to read more in non-western philosophy.
As SophistiCat has correctly pointed out, the Babylonians were much better at maths, they knew more than Euclid did, and in fact human civilisation first went past the lost mathematics of the Babylonians in the Enlightenment. 'Pythagoras's theorem' of geometry isn't by Pythagoras at all, it's Babylonian, as was all of the foundational material that the Pythagoreans contributed to the development of Greek geometry, and they got it from the Persians.
Furthermore, the lost books of 'the Greeks' were mainly transmitted to modern Europe via the great Muslim civilisation of the early medieval era, via such melting pots as the Sicilian Norman kingdom of Roger II. The great Caliphate of Baghdad under Haroun al-Rashid and his successors produced some of the finest works of science and philosophy ever written before modern times, far outstripping their Greek influences - at a time when the Europeans were a pack of Christian savages.
Don't believe the propaganda. 'The Greeks' were a small group living in Athens during a period of about 50 to 100 years; Greek culture, language and belief spans a huge timescale from the Mycenaean conquest of the Agean from the Cretans, through the Alexandrian Asian Greco-Buddhist kingdoms of Bactria and Gandhara, important for Buddhist philosophy, to the thousand years of Eastern Orthodox Christian Byzantium, which contributed nothing to philosophy at all. It is certainly true that the Late Bronze Age Babylonians and the Islamic Golden Age scholars were more important than 'the Greeks', for reasons of astronomy as well as maths and philosophy. I can't think of anything at all that I find important in modern science and philosophy that was said by a Greek; contrariwise, where do you think 'algebra' comes from? Just because the word 'metaphysics' comes from Greece doesn't mean that Greek metaphysics is important, while there is a very good reason for so many of the stars in the night sky having Arabic names like Betelgeuse.
I went to a British public school that venerated 'the Greeks', and today I have as much contempt for that veneration as I have for so much of the British public school system. Americans have inherited that tradition. It is a false one. I recommend you drop it.
Well. aristoteles and Plato survived to tell them the story Would have done so under the Pharaohs
or Ashurbanipal? Absolute Tyranny was the rule in Middle Eastern Kingdoms, it was an exception in Athens.