The readings I've done concerning the origins of Greek [whatever] have seemed like determining the orgins of the elements of a stew. Instead of saying that, for example, potatos come from here, onions there, lamb elsewhere, I know that geometry came from Egypt - as did the collonade, while the alphabet was borrowed from the Phonecians, mythological elements from the Egyptians and Minoans etc. Yet what the Greeks did with Geometry was develope rationalism, we're told. But surely this cannot have simply been "sui generis," borne of itself.
I have begun to think that we cannot really say what social and political elements set the preconditions for the development for greek philosophy, since, for example, philosophy is one element of the stew, the flavour of which developes as a whole. This is to say that there is a dialectical development amongst the parts of the whole. So we can see rationality developing in the realism with which the Greeks portray the human body, as in Euclidean Geometry, and as in their emphasis on individuation. Socrates' and those other guys exemplify it again.
But where does this come from? I'm looking for the spark that lit the fire to make the stew, the flavourings which make it uniquely Greek. Is it the Greek notion that there are answers to all problems? Isn't that hubris? Can anyone else see this pride in Pericles' famous funeral oration? Is there a solution for this question?

Ah me.
The Peripetetic.