I think Russell is right that it is difficult to account for what the Greeks did. And, of course, that what they did was extremely important for civilization.
I think some of it (and this is obviously not original to me) is due to the fact that the Greeks traded and interacted with a variety of different cultures, that got them exposure to different ways of thinking. Not to mention the fact that the Greeks themselves were a collection of city-states, and not a monolithic society. So they had experience with different ways of thinking, and respected different ways of thinking (one finds much admiration of the Egyptians, for example). Also, their polytheistic religion was not mired in dogma that forced everyone to profess the exact same set of beliefs; they had no one text that was regarded as authoritative and sacred, the way the Bible has been viewed by many Christians. It was okay to worship different gods, and focus one's attention on different ones from what someone else was doing. It wasn't a freethinker's paradise, but compared with so many other ancient (as well as more recent) societies, it was far closer to that idea than most.
I think all of those things were contributing factors for the Greeks coming up with new ways of thinking about the world.
I think some of it (and this is obviously not original to me) is due to the fact that the Greeks traded and interacted with a variety of different cultures, that got them exposure to different ways of thinking. Not to mention the fact that the Greeks themselves were a collection of city-states, and not a monolithic society. So they had experience with different ways of thinking, and respected different ways of thinking (one finds much admiration of the Egyptians, for example). Also, their polytheistic religion was not mired in dogma that forced everyone to profess the exact same set of beliefs; they had no one text that was regarded as authoritative and sacred, the way the Bible has been viewed by many Christians. It was okay to worship different gods, and focus one's attention on different ones from what someone else was doing. It wasn't a freethinker's paradise, but compared with so many other ancient (as well as more recent) societies, it was far closer to that idea than most.
I think all of those things were contributing factors for the Greeks coming up with new ways of thinking about the world.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
