Why the Greeks, always those Greeks?

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Salvete philosophi,

A reflective question for everyone to ponder about.

Why is it that classical philosophy is so dominated by Greeks? Surely the Romans had great minds too, and proportionally they had larger populations. So why are there no Gaul philosophers? No Spanish school of cynics? No Britannic Sokrates? And if there is Roman philosophy, it's usually based on Greek philosophy.

Very strange indeed, don't you think? But what could be a possible answer to this riddle?

Valete,
Draco

[Aulus Dionysius Mencius]

Salve Draco

At a guess, I would say that the main reason why Greece has had the upper hand in ancient times when it comes to philosophy, is the fact that an open debating culture first arose in Athens, with the democratic government, formed at the beginning of the 5th century BCE.

But then again, I might be totally off target here....
I await future postings on this matter.

Vale bene, amices

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Salve Aule,

On a very geeky note, I note that among us, Dionysii, there are three members which actually have an Etruscan name. You (Avles), my brother (I believe the Etruscan is Tanaquil) and myself (Cneve). Geek pride! :p

Anyway.

The debating culture you mention surely had an influence, but there was also a culture or oratory and debate in Rome. Plus, the so called nature philosophers of presocratics were not from Athens but, in fact, from Asia Minor or Greek colonies. One might argue that philosophy developed there because some part of the colonists emigrates from their home city in search for more social, economical or religious freedom (as in the early US) but on the other hand the Romans also had distant colonies which never brought forth this kind of philosophical personalities.

Vale bene!
Draco

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete

Was not Stoicism begun by Zeno, a Syrian who had travelled to Athens? The Jewish philosopher Philo was highly respected among Romans, and I seem to recall there were other Jewish and Syrian, or Phoenician philosophers, too. Greek was the language of philosophy, but not all of the philosophers were actually Greek.

Valete
Moravius Piscinus

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

So much is true, but still there seem to have been no very original Roman philosophers.

My take on this issue is that in the Hellenic world, colonies more or less "bred" new thoughts because the emigrants were creative to begin with (they had to be in order to survive). Like Mencius remarked the rise of a debate culture was also influential.

In the Roman Republic and the Empire this was different because the colonists were mostly veterans from the military who had not emigrated from Rome by necessity or were sent there in exile. Most soldiers were not very educated and as such, even if some of them had developed an interesting philosophy, couldn't write it down because they couldn't write.

Rome itself, on the other hand, was so cosmopolitan that perhaps an original thinker might have gotten assimilated in this or that tradition. Also, Romans had more of a "synthetic" habit rather than to come up with new ideas that were opposed to something older. I am just wildly guessing but the fact that the Greeks had poleis instead of a large empire could be traced back to this habit (of course there was the Hellenic empire but can you really talk of an empire if it only existed a few years?).

Draco