Il filosofo che ride è Democrito: se tutto è davvero una danza di atomi nel vuoto allora ogni vicenda umana deve rinunciare alla sua pretesa di senso e risibili debbono apparire le preoccupazioni e le cure degli uomini che non sanno adeguare le proprie passioni a ciò che la ragione del mondo ci insegna.

In the philosopher’s home city, his compatriots had become concerned at the way he laughed at everything he came across (from funerals to political success) and concluded that he must be mad. So they summoned the most famous doctor in the world to cure him. When Hippocrates arrived, however, he soon discovered that Democritus was saner than his fellow citizens. For he alone had recognized the absurdity of human existence, and was therefore entirely justified in laughing at it.

Aristoxenus (364 - 304BC), a pupil of Aristotle, wrote that Plato wanted to burn all the works of Democritus but was unable to do so because the books were so popular and widely distributed. Other sources suggest that the loss of most of Democritus' writings is evidence that Plato succeeded.

Lange suggests that the methods for real science were present in Democritus's atomistic materialism. However, atomistic materialism implies that the soul, like the body, is fated to be snuffed out: such a view made Democritus quite unattractive to virtually all world religions so Democritus was ignored and marginalized by the history of philosophy, in spite of being one of the greatest thinkers of the ancient Greek world.