Why are all the famous philosophers either Greek or German?

Answer 1

Because the greeks inveted wine and the germans took beer production to another level... only from nations like those could come great philosophers :)

Answer 2

Most answers seem to focus on the fact that there are famous philosophers that are not Greek or German, but I believe the question still holds. One answer describes how the environment in Germany was ripe for the rise of great philosophers.

I believe that for Greece we have something similar. At the time of the great philosophers there weren't many other civilizations that could devote any number of people to philosophy - they were either occupied with wars or being slaves or managing slaves.

Moreover, since we do have books coming from these philosophers or their followers, we know about them and therefore they are famous because they are the among the first for whom we have written history. Being the first has also other benefits, they can not be accused of copying others.

Answer 3

Aside from the French already mentioned, there are a number of English ones, starting with Sir Thomas More.
But the reason so many of them are Greek is that we built our civilizations on their thinking and the Romans did not advance it.
The reason so many are German is that Germany was home to a lot of free thinking away from the strong influence of the Catholic and Orthodox churches that dominated France, Spain, Italy, modern Greece, etc., and thus dominated philosophical thinking for a couple of centuries. If you look closely, you will find that many of the German philosophers had to flee and actually did much of their work in Switzerland or England.

Answer 4

They're not.

There are:

The French - Sartre and Camus (he was actually French-Algerian - a two for one!), most of the existentialists

The Americans - Rawls and Nozick, to name a couple of modern thinkers.

The Russians - Dostoevsky is fair example. (He was technically a fiction writer, but also considered a father of existentialism)

The British - Mill and Bentham

The Chinese - Confucius

The Jews - Christ (he was definitely a philosopher. Remove the deism, and it's a philosophy)

I could keep going, or add to the nationalities I've already listed, but I think I've provided a fair list. I would assert that some of the people on my list are at least as famous as the Greeks and Germans. Also, note the patent Western bias in your question. I'm willing to bet that 1.3 billion Chinese would take some measure of offense to your exclusion of Confucius as a "famous philosopher!"

Perhaps you've only been exposed to teachers of philosophy who have a distinct favoritism for the Greeks and Germans?

Answer 5

The reason is that all or at least most part of the western civilization started in Greece or Germany, like the english are from nomadic german tribes. And that what we learn is usually comes from those two parts of the world.
Therefore we think that most philospher are either greek or german, or some other europeans. But the truth is that philosphers are everywhere in the world. Asia, North America (indians), South America, Africa. We do not know that much about those parts of the world.
So, just because we do not know, does not mean it does not exist, or that it is inferior to what we do know.

Answer 6

Descartes - French
Rousseau - French
Hobbes - British
Spinoza - Dutch Jewish
Sartre - French
Locke - British
Hume - Scotch
Wittgenstein - Austrian English

More non-Germans than Germans, more non-Greeks than Greeks. Ok?

Answer 7

I agree with you, two the most important times for WESTERN PHILOSOPHY were ancient times in Greece when philosophy was born for the 1st time, my favorite period of philosophy; and German (classical) idealism in 18/19th century (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, etc.). No matter what others say, we all may like some philosophers the most, but this is the fact.
WHY?
I am not sure. For ancient Greece we all know that it is fundament of all western culture, not just in philosophy. But Germany? Germany of that time was not very progressive, but it gave some of the biggest philosophers in the world, that came with it's thinkings to the very point of being. I don't know why is that, probably when history decides to have few genius on some area in certain period of time.

Answer 8

Some blame it on the language, because greek, latin (at that time in germany the language of the scholars) and german all require a fair bit of logical thinking and thus teach to be logical.

Answer 9

Uh, what about the French? Blaise Pascal, Jean Paul Sartre, Voltaire, Rene Descartes...

Answer 10

its not true.. the ones u know are from Greek and Germany. But there are others that you don't know about and they come from all over the world just because you have no clue it does not mean they don't exist.