The Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to with the support of King's College London and the LEMU in Munich online at

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History of Philosophy.net. Today's episode, Family Feud. Philosophy at Shiraz.

One stereotypical image of the philosopher is that of a hermit living in isolation in a cave or on top of a mountain, meditating and dispensing inscrutable

wisdom to those who have had the wherewithal to make a pilgrimage to this remote location.

We owe the image in part to the ascetics who have often appeared in the history of philosophy, for instance

in classical India and among the Christians of late Antiquity.

But in reality, philosophy has usually been a creature of the cities.

Socrates hardly ever ventured outside the walls of Athens.

Along with Plato and Aristotle, he gave his hometown an indelible association with his favorite topic of conversation.

Philosophically minded Romans like Cicero still visited Athens, even though there was more philosophical action in other cities like Alexandria and in Rome itself.

Paris and Constantinople would probably claim bragging rights as the greatest centers of philosophy

in medieval Christendom. As for the Islamic world is hard to look

past Baghdad as the unofficial capital of philosophy.

But as I mentioned at the end of the last episode, Baghdad eventually fell from its pedestal in the wake of the Mongol invasion.

There were other cities ready to take its place, including Constantinople, once it was in the hands of the Ottomans,

and Lucknow in India under the rulership of the

Moogles.

Then there was the city that is still known today as the Athens of Iran, Shiraz.

I guess that Athens is therefore the Shiraz of Greece.

No less an authority than Wikipedia announces that this South Iranian city is also known as the

city of poets, literature, wine, and flowers, adding that the wine

...