Democrito e i Presofisti 
I wanted to write more and better about the beginnings of philosophy. But so it does not say anything new, just a reinterpretation of the role that some of his players have played in history. In this particular case I am of Democritus. Also I wanted to experience another way of using the blog and at the end of the post in fact link the full version in pdf, considerably longer and would not make sense to publish in serial form.
Democritus was a contemporary of Socrates, the creator of a summary of the main schools presofiste. A summary of mechanistic and materialistic that will mark the dawn of science. Democritus also - wrongly classified as pre-Socratic - turns his eyes at the thought and ethics.
The "downgrading" of Democritus is not the criticism of Aristotle and Plato (the latter does not mention it directly), but the Catholic censorship. Only in the twentieth century, the "atheist philosophy" of Democritus could be reevaluated. If the religious dogmatism had put there hand, Socrates would still be the watershed of Greek philosophy? Reading Bertrand Russell would seem not:
"The world of atoms is logically possible and closest to the real world than it is to the world than any other ancient philosopher." The philosopher of science Karl Popper seems even more clear:
"Although the name of Democritus is rarely remembered, his science like his morals still live with us." should also be noted that the Sophists were the first to turn our gaze from nature to man in general, then Democritus, oltre a fornire la sintesi più efficace tra eraclitei ed eleati è anche il creatore di un pensiero enciclopedico che compendia tutti i campi della filosofia classica. Di fronte a tutto questo Socrate non ne deve uscire sminuito, ne ridimensionato. E’ Democrito che va spostato in cima al podio assieme a lui.
