This paper states the paradoxical spatial distribution of barbarians in the heart of the archaic and classical Greek polis and of philosophers, who initially appear in the edges of the Greek world. Taken this starting point, a series of questions arises about the social place occupied by the Greek thought in concrete cities, in a Pan-Hellenic context, or in the general oikoumene. It is intended to show how the social conditions of production of Greek thought are relevant to understnad some of its expressions.