Founded in 2008,
CPNS is dedicated to advancing a cross-disciplinary understanding of nature and its complex interconnections. With our research programs and publications, curricular programs and course offerings in History and Philosophy of Science, and our national and international university partnerships, we bring together scholars and students in collaborative inquiry into the foundations and frontiers of scientific knowledge.
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CPNS RESEARCH
A Topological Approach to Quantum Mechanics
In this unique two-part volume, Michael Epperson and Elias Zafiris chart out an intuitive Whiteheadian event-ontological interpretation of quantum mechanics formalized via the mathematics of category theory and algebraic topology. For more information about this research project, visit the CPNS Research page.
Foundations of Relational Realism: The Evolution of Set Theoretic External Relations to Category Theoretic Internal Relations Toward an Event-Ontological, Topological Approach to Quantum Mechanics
Principal Investigator: Michael Epperson, CPNS-CSUS. Co-Investigators: Elias Zafiris, Senior Fellow in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, Univ. of Athens; Stuart Kauffman, Complex Systems Center, Univ. of Vermont; Timothy Eastman, NASA-Goddard; Phillip Stamp, Professor of Physics, Univ. of British Columbia; David Finkelstein, Professor Emeritus of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology; Roland Omnès, Université de Paris XI, (CNRS). Supported by a grant from Fetzer-Franklin (Grant D21C62)
Ontogenesis Process Group
Sha Xin Wei (ASU), Stuart Kauffman (Santa Fe), Giuseppe Longo (École Normale Supérieure), Michael Epperson (CPNS - CSUS), Adam Nocek (ASU), Cary Wolfe (Rice), Phillip Thurtle (Univ. of Washington), Gaymon Bennett (ASU), Erin Espelie (University of Colorado). Project publication: Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 25.3, Special Issue, "Ontogenesis Beyond Complexity," June 2020.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
CPNS-CSUS History and Philosophy of Science Program
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. Sacramento State's HPS Program includes undergraduate research fellows, new course offerings in the Department of History, visiting scholars, graduate student liaisons, and more.
HPS Undergraduate and Graduate Student Research Fellows
CPNS Student Research Fellows develop interdisciplinary research projects that bring the natural sciences into cross-connection with the field of history and philosophy of science. These faculty supervised research projects give undergraduate and graduate students crucial experience in the synthesis of new ideas and their proper investigation via analysis of scholarly literature in the natural sciences, philosophy of science, and history of science.
SELECTED ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
CPNS Research in Science News: Rehabilitating Aristotle in Quantum Mechanics
Science News editor Tom Siegfried recently reviewed a paper by CPNS Senior Research Fellows Stuart Kauffman, Michael Epperson, and Ruth Kastner: "Taking Heisenberg's Potentia Seriously" International Journal of Quantum Foundations, 4:2 (2018): 158-172
The Problem of Mathematical Reductionism in Physics
CPNS Research Fellow Michael Epperson critiques a familiar maneuver in popular physics books these days—claims of concretizing what is inescapably abstract, usually by way of a purely speculative and untestable assertion costumed mathematically as a testable hypothesis.
The Mathematics of Archimedes Discovered in Topological Quantum Mechanics Promising Major Advances
In a groundbreaking set of two papers recently published in Foundations of Physics, CPNS Senior Research Fellow Elias Zafiris demonstrates how the mathematics of Archimedes opens important new doors in quantum theory.
Connect with CPNS
Find Us
Michael Epperson, Founding Director
Benicia Hall,
Room 1012
Contact Us
Phone: (916) 287-8062
epperson@csus.edu