In places like Ancient China and Greece, there seemed to be a lot of great thinkers, setting the very foundations of mathematics and the like for today, as well as pondering bigger questions like the meaning of life and morality. Why is it that these people emerged in these places as opposed to one of the great civilisations in the Americas like the Toltec Empire? I know some level of Astronomy was conducted by these Empires, so was there just a lesser value places on these people or was it that these great thinkers were just well placed next to Emperors and had greater access to writing materials?
Hi,
you may be interested in this recent thread on a related question, with great contributions by /u/400-rabbits , /u/Snapshot52 and /u/Bem-ti-vi.
I will just highlight two points from there specifically for your question: 1) major intellectual traditions existed in the pre-Hispanic Americas, yet much has been unfortunately lost through destruction by European powers, the often forced colonial reorganization of indigenous communities, and other influences. And 2) the concept of "philosophy" is itself European and so does not necessarilty encompass those indigenous forms of knowledge.
Hope this helps!