Giorgio de Santillana

Giorgio de Santillana [Wikipedia]

Giorgio Diaz de Santillana (Rome, 30 May 1902 – Beverly, Massachusetts, 1974) was an Italian-American philosopher of science and historian of science, and professor at MIT. He moved to the United States in 1936 and became a naturalized US citizen in 1945. In 1948, he married. In 1941 he commenced his academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), becoming an Assistant Professor the following year. From 1943 to 1945 he served in the United States Army as a war correspondent. Following the war, in 1945 he returned to MIT and was made an Associate Professor in 1948 and a full Professor of the History of Science in the School of Humanities in 1954. In 1969, he published a book entitled: Hamlet's Mill, An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time with Dr. Hertha von Dechend. This book focussed upon the understanding of the connection between the mythological stories of Pharaonic Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Christianity, etc. and the ancient observations pertaining to the stars, planets and, most notably, the 26,000 year precession of the equinoxes.[1]

Isis, a professional journal of the history of science, included an obituary by friend, Professor Nathan Sivin in Volume 67 (1976), pages 439-443. An excerpt can be found online.

http://platonism347.tripod.com/de_santillana.htm


Bibliography

Development of rationalism and empiricism. With Edgar Zilsel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941. (International encyclopedia of unified science Foundations of the unity of science ; v2 no.8).

Leonardo Da Vinci (1956)

Crime of Galileo. London: Heinemann, 1958.

The Origins of Scientific Thought: from Anaximander to Proclus, 600 BC to 300 AD. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1961.

Reflections on Men and Ideas (1968)

Hamlet's Mill. With Hertha von Dechend (1915–2001). Boston: Gambit Inc., 1969.

The Mentor Philosophers: The Age of Adventure: Renaissance Philosophers


Further reading

Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia (1972). "Review of Hamlet's Mill, by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend". Journal for the History of Astronomy 3: 206–211. Bibcode:1972JHA.....3..206P.


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From the video (YouTube user cfapps7865)

Joe and John Anthony West discuss the theory behind one of my all time favorite books, 'Hamlet's Mill' written by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechen. This fascinating,.. but of course highly criticized book brings into question the self-congratulatory assumptions of Western science about the unfolding development and transmission of knowledge. This is a truly seminal and original thesis, a book that should be read by anyone interested in myth and science, and the interactions between the two.

From book: "Mistaking cultural history for a process of gradual evolution, we have deprived ourselves of every reasonable insight into the nature of culture. It goes without saying that the still more modern habit of replacing "culture" by "society" has blocked the last narrow path to understanding history. Our ignorance not only remained vast, but became pretentious as well." (page 71)

From The Joe Rogan Experience, Podcast 226

Full interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swEmL2a-h5o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet%27s_Mill
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/hamlets_mill/hamletmill.htm
http://podcasts.joerogan.net/


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From MaverickScience.com

We are not alone in this belief. For several decades now, the words of Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend have served as a rallying cry for those of us who believe ancient astronomical conceptions pervade myth:

"The real actors on the stage of the universe are very few, if their adventures are many. The most 'ancient treasure'--in Aristotle's word--that was left to us by our predecessors of the High and Far-Off Times was the idea that the gods are really stars, and that there are no others. The forces reside in the starry heavens, and all the stories, characters and adventures narrated by mythology concentrate on the active powers among the stars, who are the planets."
--'Hamlet's Mill


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An emerging pioneer, beyond his lifetime

Giorgio de Santilana was a pioneer into areas of revisionist science which are too numerous to go into detail about now, including the scientific basis for astrology, the electric universe, Saturn as a dwarf star, the Venus-Mars connection, and the reconfiguration of our solar system. 


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1-19-14 Addition: I couldn't help but add here the irony that Santilana was from Rome, where Saturn was a very big part of Rome's ancient spirituality and culture. In fact, the archaic name for the Roman-Italian peninsula was "Saturnia." The irony being that Saturn is extremely relevant in his theories, which are only gaining momentum now.

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