L’ateismo radicale e il significato originario della filosofia. A proposito del Socrate delle Nuvole nella lettura di Leo Strauss

This contribution offers an analysis of Leo Strauss’s recovery of theradically atheistic character of “Socratic” philosophy. It is divided in four parts. In thefirst one, I will reconstruct the historical-philosophical context that prompted Straussto question the historical triumph of modern atheism over revealed religion. In the secondpart, I present what Strauss identified as the “original meaning” of philosophy.I show how it must be distinguished from the attitude of dogmatic atheism that characterizesinstead modern philosophical thought. The third part will be dedicatedto the analysis of a literary figure which highlights the main defects of the “originalphilosophical atheism,” namely Aristophanes’ Socrates. As I will argue, this comicalportrait is almost paradigmatic in the way it articulates the problems related to a strictrejection of any opinion based on authority or tradition. In the fourth and last part Iwill explain why it is of fundamental importance that even today, after Nietzsche, weraise the issue of the radically atheist nature of philosophy, and consider it in its socialand political consequences.