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Stanford University Press eBooks

What Is Real?

Giorgio Agamben

Published Jul 13, 2020• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this philosophical detective story, Giorgio Agamben reads the mysterious 1938 disappearance of atomic physicist Ettore Majorana as an intentional and decisive objection to how quantum physics had reduced the real to probability.
DOI
10.1515/9781503607378

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Inference International Review of Science•Oct 19, 2018•0 citations
This essay aims to present the philosophical and investigative path followed by Giorgio Agamben regarding the question What is Real? (2016) in the eponymous work. The essay examines the paradigmatic dissolution of reality, from the deterministic perception of classical physics to the probabilistic conception of quantum physics, in light of the analogy proposed by the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana between the statistical laws of physics and the statistical laws of the social sciences, as well as the foundational critiques of Simone Weil on quantum physics. Agamben then establishes his own reflections on the problem of what is real, drawing from Weil’s insights on the intrinsic connection between necessity and probability, which enables decision-making in situations of uncertainty. Agamben further explores probability theory, using the historical example of Pascal’s "interrupted game" to illustrate how probability influences decision-making.
The physicists working in several areas of research know quite well the name of Ettore Majorana, since it is currently associated to fundamental concepts like {\it Majorana neutrinos} in particle physics and cosmology or {\it Majorana fermions} in condensed matter physics. But, probably, very few is known about other substantial contributions of that ingenious scholar, and even less about his personal background. For non specialists, instead, the name of Ettore Majorana is usually intimately related to the fact that he disappeared rather mysteriously on March 26, 1938, just seventy years ago, and was never seen again. The life and the work of this Italian scientist is the object of the present review, which will also offer a summary of the main results achieved in recent times by the historical and scientific researches on his work.