Why did Philosophy originate in Greece

[Andrew]

In this thread I would like to present the factors that caused the genesis of philosophy in Greece. And first of all let's define the term philosophy. It is defined as a purely ...greek way of thought , that is the profound and methodic reflection about everything.Why did that type of thought originated in greek land during the ancient times ?? Was it pure chance ??

Responsible Factors :

1) Axen Zeit . The great german philosopher Karl Jaspers defined the first BC millenium as the Axet Zeit (Axonic Period) of human kind. He considers it as the exact period when Homo became ...Sapiens , that is wise. During that period in many places of the world we have the genesis of the "wise men". In China we have Confucius and Lao Tse , in India Buddha , in Iran Zarathustra , in Israel the Profets ofthe Old Testament and ,of course, in Greece the Presocratic Philosophers (Vorsokratiken). We can see that period of time as an instance during which the human became more mature and , as I said , meritocraticaly Homo Sapiens.
2) Ambient . Although all ,these guys were more or less contemporary they followed different paths because they stood in different sociological and physical ambients. For example , in India the jungle offers an enormus variety and number of life forms , which addressed the thoughts of the Indians to the question "how can exist so many souls ?". The answer to that question was recarnation and soul recycling. In Greece from the other hand we have an arid climet and a rocky and a relatively infertile soil. That addressed the Greek from the begining to use his brain to survive , and to develop a strong dipendence with the sea , which sends us to the third factor.
3) Ethnographic Experience . The Greek became saylor and merchant from the early times . That offered him the possibility to see other cultures and especialy those of the already developed East.That factor is well shown in the second verse of the Odyssey «πολλῶν δ’ἄνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα και νόον ἔγνω» , that is "..who learned the cities and minds of many people". But the Greeks didn't just take the knowlegde of the oriental cultures , they also evolved it. Aristoteles says that before the Greeks the knowlegde was καθ΄έκαστον (fractioned) and were the greeks who started to synthezising it in systematic knowledge that obbays in certain laws (καθ΄όλου). Plato adds : «ὅ,τι περ ἄν Ἕλληνες βαρβάρων παραλάβωσι, κάλλιον τοῦτο εἰς τέλος ἀπεργάζονται» , "what ever the Greeks took from the barbarians, at the and they trasformed it into something better".
4) Lack of Dogmatism . In ancient Greece there wasn't a dogmatic religion and an organized clergy. By that way , religius myth didn't inhibit the development of the free thought.
5) The propedeutical action of the early archaic years. In this period we have Homer , Hesiod and the Seven Sapients. Homer gives us a first set of gods and virtues , meanwhile Hesiod tries to classificate all that by correlating terms like importance , name and time. with the seven sapients we have the begining of the Greek Humanism , that is wise guys with their massimes trying to improve the society. Although we're far away from the Presocratic Philisophy (although Thales was both of them) ,some maxims show us the sprouts of the later philisophy. For example Solon's «τά ἀφανῆ τοῖς φανεροῖς τεκμαίρου» , "demonstrate the invisible from what you see", contains one common presocratic topic. That is don't trust only the senses , but take what they offer you and elaborate it before making any conclusions.
6) At last , I mension a thing that Nietzsche considers the very source of every Greek virtue and every Greek Vice. That is the competitive spirit of the Greeks. For Nietzsche the basic commanment of the Greeks is the homeric verse «αἰέν ἀριστεύειν και ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων» , that is "always be perfect and above others". This is interpreted as a natural attraction of the Greek for what is perfect,better,gorgeus. The Greek man has a place in his society only if he's special , that is discrete from the mass. To achieve that he competes and he trains to win. For example the Olympic Games can be seen as a competition that defines the perfect body , that is the fastest , the strongest etc. By the way , in a competition like that you must have judges that are valueing the athlets. These judges must have a profound perception and a kanonic and classificating thought in order to identify what is best , perfect , most attractive. Another example is the mythological competition for the "Cup of Bathykles". That cup should be taken by the wiser («τῷ σοφοτάτῳ») among the seven Sapients. Now to define who was the wiser among them , someone must learn their theories and compare them. By the way by that he becames smarter and a more profound thinker. Another example of this cometitive spirit is Alexander the Great . When asked who will succeed him he replied "the strongest" («τῷ κρατίστῳ»). Another example of this competition that causes evolution by natural sellection is the Athenean Democracy. The term of the assembly (αγορά) derives etymologicaly by the word competition (αγών). That means simply that in an ambient where everybody talks , the croud will follow the most convincing orator/general/politician. Not by chance Athens was a productor of generals and politicians.
7) Meliorative hybridation . To understand that one first someone must learn the process of "hellenogenesis" , that is the genesis of the ancient greek population. Everybody agrees that the ancient Greeks were an assortment of cultures and tribes that in the more semplistic way we can see them as a hybridation process between the pre-Greeks (Aegean population like Pelasgians , Leleges , Carians , Phoenisians etc) and proto-Greeks (indoeuropeans that have imported the structure of the greek language in the greek soil during the 2000-1800 BC period). Knowing that now we can present the conclusions of a well known psycologist that investigates the human intelligence. His name is Hans J. Eysenck and by his work he demonstrated that the childs that origin from heteroracial parents tend to be more intelligent than those that originate from homoracial ones. That affermation is translated like this :"the greater the genetic distance of two breeding individuals the greater is the advantage of the hybriddation in the offspring". We all know the advantage of hybridation in terms of resistance and productivity in animals and plants . Now it's time to identify it also in the human intelligence. But in the case of the Ancient Greeks the hybridation wasn't only biological , but also cultural . In that prolific "moment" at the begining of the second BC millenium we had the anthropological and cultural "contact" that gave us the "Greek man" with his virtues and his Vices.
To understand the validity of this theory one must see a pass from Herodotus on the Ionians (1.146) , who as we know , inaugurated the Greek Philosophy.

146. For this reason then the Ionians also made for themselves twelve cities; for at any rate to say that these are any more Ionians than the other Ionians, or have at all a nobler descent, is mere folly, considering that a large part of them are Abantians from Eubœa, who have no share even in the name of Ionia, and Minyai of Orchomenos have been mingled with them, and Cadmeians and Dryopians and Phokians who seceded from their native State and Molossians and Pelasgians of Arcadia and Dorians of Epidauros and many other races have been mingled with them; and those of them who set forth to their settlements from the City Hall of Athens and who esteem themselves the most noble by descent of the Ionians, these, I say, brought no women with them to their settlement, but took Carian women, whose parents they slew: and on account of this slaughter these women laid down for themselves a rule, imposing oaths on one another, and handed it on to their daughters, that they should never eat with their husbands, nor should a wife call her own husband by name, for this reason, because the Ionians had slain their fathers and husbands and children and then having done this had them to wife. This happened at Miletos.

I think that it is shown clearly that in the place where Philosophy was inaugurated a large scale hybridation has occured.

Perception , Profound Thinking , continuous evolution by continuous competition , natural sellection and meliorative hybridation combined with practicality gave birth to that colossal achievement of the human mind ...The Greek Logic.

[Promethean Fire]

Interesting view Andrew. Alot of national movements claim that Greece had adopted most of her mystic methods from Egypt, and yet in a contradicting instance we have Solon from Platos Republic who came across the Egyptian priest who advised a young Solon that the Egyptians long ago adopted methods from the early Athenians Pelasgians perhaps.

When i read Greek philosophy i tend to look at dates of the evolution of the certain thought carried out by the author and it seems to me that if we say its evolution thought rather than Archemidian Eurika, then primitive knowledge came before the movement and therefore it leads to the Myths.

Myths are not stories but rather spoken words or voice recording by ear to mouth and so on. MYTHOLOGIA ANTHOLOGIO are different methods of the same priniciple.

To me the Gods are nothing more than wise men and woman who were aware of there surroundings and the universe.

Its in the notion of the mythologia itself...we have Prometheus who brings fire to men..you can take this literally or metaphoricaly..i prefer the latter which would make sense that this Prometheus brought light to man,Godly thought.

Its relavent that Athena sprung from Zeus's head for she is philosophy which is pioneered by the brain, in other words it comes staright from the mind rather than physical and so she springs staright out of our heads.

There are many more in your face examples that people just fail to see and cast them as fairy tales or simply it doesnt interest them. Personaly i dont care what peoples opinion is unless they add something constructive rather than just what they feel.

You should also read the short narrative by Socrates on how knowledge is already in us and he takes the time to proove this by assisting a slave to solve a mathematical problem.

We are born with capabilities and it takes experience to bring them out. Greeks knew this thus made it a priority in life to make mind and body balanced .Their phrase for this was “kalo kagathos”.

To the eyes of the Greeks no one had perfection, its the very reason they rejected a Persian rule, as Cyrus claimed he was sent by god, the Greeks laughed.

[Andrew]

Originaly posted by Promethean fire:

Its in the notion of the mythologia itself...we have Prometheus who brings fire to men..you can take this literally or metaphoricaly..i prefer the latter which would make sense that this Prometheus brought light to man,Godly thought.

The Promethean myth ... You know what it means for me mostly??
That these "bastards" Ancient Greeks knew that the liver can regenerate !! It is one of the very few organs that can regenerate !!

And I'm asking you how old do you think is the promythean myth ??

[Promethean Fire]

I see what you mean, the punishment of the vulture who kept eating his liver after it regenarated, its an awesome point re, considering that the myth clearly states regenaration. Im still leaning towards his rebellion against the god Zeus as an act to free man from aporia. But there is also the oppisite of Prometheus , his brother Epimetheus. Pre thought vs After thought.

The myths run so deep that we must makes sure we come to conclsions with much fore thought or foresight.

But im realy impressed by your liver theory...how did you come to this?

[Andrew]

By being a Medic ...when I was studying the non organotypic reganaration of the liver after partial asportation .... the Promethean myth was the first thing that came into my mind ??

And I questioned myself ...Damn !! How did they knew it ??

The liver's mass by eliminating some metabolites from blood causes metabolical clearance. Now this metabolites also function as "liver growth factors". If I cut a piece of liver , the metabolits clearance riduces , their concentration in the blood grows and that gives the signal to the remaining hepatic tisue to grow !!!!

Life ....what a mystery ..ee ???