A LOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MAJORANA’S PAPERS ON THEORETICAL PHYSICS

We study two celebrated Majorana’s papers through a method of investigation which relies upon the recently recognised distinction between classical logic and grosso modo the several kinds of non-classical logics, i.e. the failure of the double negation law. This law fails when a double negated sentence is not equivalent to the corresponding positive sentence, owing to the lack of scientific evidence of the latter one. All recognised double negated sentences inside the text of each paper are listed; the mere sequence of such sentences gives the logical thread of Majorana’s arguing. This one is recognised to be of the Lagrangian kind, which mixes logical arguing and mathematical calculation; i.e. the author puts a fundamental problem which is solved by anticipating the mathematical hypothesis which is capable of solving it, and then by drawing from this hypothesis the mathematical consequences in order to obtain the desired result. Furthermore Majorana’s rhetoric of presentation results to be a juridical one, owing to his style of presenting the laws to which an ideal theoretical physicist has to conform himself in order to solve the problem at issue.