Dr. Michael Epperson
Director of the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences
California State University, Sacramento

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Tuesday, February 23^rd
6:00 - 7:00 pm
University Union, Redwood Room

The Sacramento State STEM Scholars Public Lecture Series welcomes Dr. Michael Epperson, founder and director of the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences at California State University, Sacramento and a Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy. His talk, titled "From Classical Philosophy to Quantum Mechanics: An Evolving Reality," addresses the philosophical implications of recent innovations in quantum mechanics, and the resulting challenges for the conventional classical worldview.

In classical mechanics, nature’s fundamental constituents are units of material substance; in quantum mechanics, they are units of relation—i.e., ‘events’ rather than ‘things.’ “In the classical worldview, things have histories; in the quantum worldview, things are histories,” says Epperson. He will explore how ‘classical reality’ is modeled as emergent from a more fundamental quantum mechanical description of nature.

Speaker Bio:

Michael Epperson did his doctoral work in philosophy of science and philosophy of religion at The University of Chicago, and earned his Ph.D. there in 2003. His dissertation, Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, was written under the direction of philosopher David Tracy and physicist Peter Hodgson, Head of the Nuclear Physics Theoretical Group at the University of Oxford. It was published the following year by Fordham University Press. His current research explores the philosophical implications of recent innovations in quantum mechanics, cosmology, and complexity theory. This exploration is ultimately a speculative metaphysical enterprise intended to contribute to the framework of a suitable bridge by which scientific, philosophical, and even theological concepts might not only be cross-joined, but mutually supported. His forthcoming book, co-edited with David Ray Griffin and Timothy E. Eastman, is entitled, Physics and Speculative Philosophy: The Rehabilitation of Metaphysics in 21st Century Science.

He is Principal Investigator of his current research project, “Logical Causality in Quantum Mechanics: Relational Realism and the Evolution of Ontology to Praxiology in the Philosophy of Nature,” funded by a $209,000 grant from the Fetzer-Franklin Fund and a $20,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation/CTNS STARS program

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