https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettore_Majorana
Ettore Majorana (/maɪəˈrɑːnə/,[2]Italian: [ˈɛttore majoˈraːna]; born on 5 August 1906 – likely dying in or after 1959)[1] was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrinomasses. On 25 March 1938, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances after purchasing a ticket to travel by ship from Naples to Palermo.
What happened to Ettore Majorana in 1936? Is there evidence that he died in 1959? (ChatGPT, 2025-1-31)
Ettore Majorana, the brilliant Italian theoretical physicist, mysteriously disappeared in March 1938, not 1936. On March 25, 1938, he vanished while traveling from Palermo to Naples by boat, leaving behind enigmatic letters suggesting both suicidal intent and a potential decision to disappear voluntarily. However, his fate remains one of the great scientific mysteries.
Possible Theories About His Fate:
1. Suicide: Some believe Majorana committed suicide by jumping into the sea, as hinted in his farewell letters. However, his body was never found.
2. Self-imposed exile (Monastery or Argentina): There are theories that he withdrew to a monastery or fled to South America (Argentina) to live in anonymity.
3. Captured or Assassinated: Some speculate that he was taken by secret services or eliminated due to his knowledge of nuclear physics.
4. Lived in South America Until 1959: In 2011, an Italian investigative report suggested that Majorana had been seen in Venezuela in the 1950s, possibly living there under a new identity. A 1959 photograph purportedly shows a man resembling Majorana in Caracas.
Is There Evidence He Died in 1959?
No definitive evidence exists proving that Majorana died in 1959. While the 2011 Italian police investigation concluded that Majorana may have lived in Venezuela until at least 1959, their evidence -a photograph of a man resembling Majorana - is not conclusive. No verified records of his death, such as a death certificate, have been found.
His fate remains unknown, and his case is still open to speculation.
What did Giorgio Agamben say about Ettore Majorana’s disappearance in his book “What is Real?” (2018)? (ChatGPT, 2025-1-31)
In What is Real? (2018), Giorgio Agamben explores Ettore Majorana’s disappearance as more than just a historical mystery - he treats it as a philosophical event, questioning the nature of reality itself. Agamben suggests that Majorana’s vanishing was not merely physical but metaphysical, a withdrawal from a world that had become untenable for him.
Key Ideas from Agamben on Majorana’s Disappearance:
1. Majorana’s Withdrawal as a Philosophical Act
Agamben speculates that Majorana’s disappearance was a deliberate existential choice, akin to a monk retreating into another dimension of existence.
He does not interpret it as suicide or a mere escape but as an act of self-erasure from a world that no longer made sense to him.
2. Physics and the Crisis of Reality
Agamben connects Majorana’s fate to his revolutionary work in quantum physics, particularly his insight into particles that exist and do not exist simultaneously (now called Majorana fermions).
He suggests that Majorana might have realized something so profound about reality that he could no longer remain in the world as we know it.
3. Disappearance as a Gesture Beyond History
Agamben links Majorana’s vanishing to a form of sovereignty over one’s own existence - a refusal to be reduced to a historical narrative.
In a sense, his disappearance is a kind of ultimate autonomy, an exit not just from public life but from the logic of historical determinism itself.
4. Reality as a Question Rather than a Given
The book challenges the idea that “reality” is something fixed and objective.
Agamben uses Majorana’s case to problematize our understanding of presence and absence, asking: Can someone still “exist” even after they have disappeared?
How This Relates to Agamben’s Broader Work
Agamben often deals with states of exception, bare life, and forms of political invisibility - themes that resonate with Majorana’s case.
Majorana’s disappearance can be read as an escape from the biopolitical structures that define and control existence.
Conclusion: Disappearance as a Radical Reconfiguration of Being
Agamben does not attempt to “solve” the mystery of Majorana’s fate in a conventional sense. Instead, he elevates the disappearance to a metaphysical level, treating it as an event that forces us to rethink what it means to exist, to be real, and to choose non-being as a form of ultimate freedom.
In this way, Majorana’s disappearance is not just a historical anomaly but a philosophical rupture, a moment where the boundaries between being and non-being, science and mysticism, presence and absence are shattered.
