The premise: A philosophical approach arises when religious authority is not regarded as all-powerful.
The reason philosophical critical inquiry, and epistemological thought arose in ancient Greece is because there was no powerful state religion that inhibited reason and free will.
The reason philosophical critical inquiry, and epistemological thought arose in ancient Greece is because there was no powerful state religion that inhibited reason and free will.
Philosophy is created when the mind turns from practical matters of avoiding danger and uncertainty to a form of critical inquiry in which its own resources are objectified and subjected to critical scrutiny. The ancient Greek world transformed inquiry from an essentially practical or ritualistic/religious enterprise into a form of abstract and theoretical thought. Was there something about the Greeks or their culture that brought about this transformation? The Greeks’ relation to their gods, who had large but limited powers and business of their own to mind, was one influence. The fact that the religious establishment had little authority to pronounce on ultimate questions of reality was another. Further, the Greeks’ commercial and military encounters with other cultures led them to questions of social organization. These things induced the Greeks to weigh themselves in relation to others, to examine the powerful influence of custom on thought, and to recognize no viable alternative to the use of their own limited intellectual resources.
Great Ideas of Philosophy,
Professor Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.
Philosophy Faculty, Oxford University; Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, Georgetown University
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/great-ideas-of-philosophy-2nd-edition.html