CSUS History and Philosophy of Science Program

Michelle Spremich, a Sacramento State History Major and CPNS Undergraduate Research Fellow, has a new article published in Clio, the academic journal of the national History Honor Society Phi Alpha Theta, Rho Xi Chapter. The article, "Ancient Greek Ideas on the Nature of Reality and Their Direct Influence on the Discovery of Quantum

Mechanics" Clio vol. 30, Spring 2020 was written as a project of Sacramento State's HPS Student Research Initiative, which included the following HPS courses--HIST 104, History of Ancient Science, HIST 107, History of the Physical Sciences, and HIST 199, Special Problems in History and Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. Michelle graduated in 2020, and is now a History Department graduate student and CPNS Graduate Research Fellow.

• New Courses

• Visiting Scholar Series

• Student Research Initiative - A Faculty Mentored Undergraduate Research Group

• Student Mentorship and Graduate School Advising from CPNS Graduate Student Liaisons at Stanford University and San Francisco State University

• Ultimate Questions Student Discussion Group

In response to increasing student interest in science’s latest answers to the Big Questions, and the growing importance of science in today’s knowledge economy, Sacramento State has joined the ranks of top-tier universities offering History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) programs, launching its own HPS Program.

Sacramento State's HPS Program will be further strengthened by its integration with other CPNS and partner initiatives, including:

• CPNS Graduate Courses at U.C. Berkeley - Graduate Theological Union: Starting spring 2015, in collaboration with CPNS's Program for Science and Human Values, U.C. Berkeley-GTU will be offering occasional graduate courses that explore the history and philosophy of religion and modern science. The first of these graduate courses, 'Orthodox Christianity and Modern Science: A Dialogue with the Western Scholastic Tradition' was taught by CPNS Director Michael Epperson spring 2015.

• Ecology of Practices Research Network: An affiliation of research centers spanning diverse disciplines in the sciences, humanities, engineering, and the arts, this network includes CPNS at California State University, Sacramento; the Program for Computer Aided Architectural Design at ETH Zurich; and the Synthesis Center in the School of Arts, Media & Engineering at Arizona State University. We focus on those disciplines where engineering and technology serve as a bridge between experience and scientific formal structures and conceptual frameworks.

Ontogenesis Process Group: Sha Xin Wei (ASU), Stuart Kauffman (Santa Fe), Giuseppe Longo (École Normale Supérieure), Adam Nocek (ASU), Cary Wolfe (Rice), Phillip Thurtle (Univ. of Washington), Gaymon Bennett (ASU), Erin Espelie (University of Colorado Boulder), Michael Epperson (CPNS - CSUS). The Ontogenesis Process Group is a research stream animated by the thesis that the living world in all its modes—biological, semiotic, economic, affective, social, etc.—escapes finite schema of description. Our work is based on a deep and sustained engagement with biological, physical, and computational sciences, operating in conjunction with anthropological, philosophical, and artistic modes of inquiry.

Additional future course offerings may include topics such as:

• Science, Technology, and Society: An Historical Perspective
• Introduction to the History of Science
• History of Medieval and Early Modern Science
• History of Modern Science – From the 17th Century to the Present
• Gender Issues in Science and Technology
• The History of Time: From the Ancient World to the 21st Century
• The History of the Atom: From the Ancient World to the 21st Century
• The History of Science in a Religious World
• History of Science and Medicine in the U.S.
• History of Technology in the U.S.
• History of Ecology and Environmentalism