They lived in ancient Greece and it wasn't exactly religious work they were doing. I can understand something like the Bible and Koran surviving 2000 years. But the work of a few philosophers standing the test of time and still receiving credit for their work today, boggles my mind! My guess is that the Persians preserved the work and it eventually made its way to European institutions during the 1600's. But this is merely speculation on my part.
History - 3 Answers
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1 :
What you must remember is that a) the language of educated people in the Roman empire was Greek and thus among well-educated Romans knowledge of and respect for Greek learning was prevalent. and b) the Eastern Roman Empire survived as the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire right down to the mid-15th century, by which time the recovery of learning in Western Europe was well underway.
2 :
Through manuscripts that were handed from scholars to scholars, in the Hellenistic times, then in the Roman times, then in the Byzantine times, then during the Middle Ages. However copyists who copied the manuscripts for more readers made errors while copying and that is why a manuscript differs from another. It gives scholars a lot of work figuring out what is the best manuscripts. It is their job after all!
3 :
A lot of classical philosophy was preserved by the Muslim world during the middle ages. Most of the works by Aristotle, for example, were lost to the West until about the 11th century; and first came to us through the Jewish/spanish philosopher, Averoes, which was further interpreted by Thomas Aquinas. Much of Plato's works were also lost, to the West, in the Middle Ages. During this time, westerners relied on a summary of Platonic thought, a work called 'The Consolation of Philosophy.' (It's under two hundred pages), by the 6th century Italian philosopher, Boethius.
