The Greeks benefited by creating systems of thought that were propagated by academies and books, and were supported and protected by a vast, powerful empire for

The Greeks benefited by creating systems of thought that were propagated by academies and books, and were supported and protected by a vast, powerful empire for over a thousand years. They happened to have laid the foundation for university education in the west, where the industrial revolution took off first. It doesn’t take much to imagine a world where the industrial revolution happened in China first and we’d all be talking about how everyone considers confuscious the only important philosopher while overlooking Plato and Aristotle. Hell in a hundred years that could still happen.