After a rather long time I want to add some thoughts:

* I conceive the Greek development indeed as specific for the Greeks. Yes they had some neighbours from whom to learn, but it is singular to them that they combined these with original thought to new cultural achievements. The phoenicians would have been a much more natural people to achive this, when we consider the main work as collecting and combining.

* We would have to define Greek however. As it is we have a people that consists of people Ionian, Dorian and Achean, just to name some. Nikolaos let me disagree about the influence of the very soil on which Greece is located. Other people also had to earn their bread with toil and sweat. But they didn't come up with philosophy. Maybe the combination of work and rich harvest is what we are really looking for. Indeed my opinion is that in every circumstance there is only a small group of people who can afford to take the time for writing books, or leave work to think.

* Of course if we take a larger view we have other cultures in east Asia and in Southern America which we can honour for theri philosophy, maybe some comparison will bring interesting things to the daylight.