However, taking science and practically any subject back to it's foundations and the inevitable assumptions from which it proceeds has always fascinated me...something those "Athenian talking pointers" were adept at with their Socratic dialectics.
Perhaps Socrates had some impact : ). But seriously, take Pythagoras, imv perhaps more important as far as maths (and science) goes. He was almost 70 years before Socrates and was from Samos island. Whatever.
And still, still, we don't recognise the impact of the Indus and Egyptian components that fed those intellects.