Programs

CURRICULAR PROGRAMS

History and Philosophy of Science Program - Department of History

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 will join the ranks of top-tier universities offering History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) programs, launching its own HPS Program in fall 2014. Sacramento State's HPS Program includes new course offerings in the Department of History, a Student Research Initiative, visiting scholars, the Ultimate Questions Student Discussion Group, and more.

CPNS Program for Science and Human Values

Graduate Courses at U.C. Berkeley - Graduate Theological Union

Starting spring 2015, the CPNS Program for Science and Human Values, in collaboration with U.C. Berkeley-GTU, will be offering graduate courses that explore the history and philosophy of religion and modern science. The first of these courses was "Orthodox Christianity and Modern Science: A Dialogue with the Western Scholastic Tradition, taught by Michael Epperson (ST 4320, Tuesdays 11:10 - 2:00 PM, MUDD 205)

History Department Curriculum Design Grant awarded to design CSUS’s first history of science and religion course

HIST 104B, "Reading the Heavens: The Coevolution of Christian and Scientific Understandings of the Universe in the West" examines the co-evolution of western science and Christian theology from the vantage point of intellectual history.

RESEARCH PROGRAMS

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

Foundations of Relational Realism: A Topological Approach to Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Nature (Lexington Books / Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) represents the capstone of our 2010-2013 project, along with a number of published papers and conference presentations. With this foundational work in place, our next step is to demonstrate the experimental applicability of this sheaf theoretic quantum formalism and its philosophical conceptual framework—viz. its advantages both in terms of prediction and interpretation of data. To that end, we propose to apply the relational realist framework to the task of explicating the well-known but poorly understood problem of quantum geometric (topological) phases. We are doing so via an analysis of experimental data on the Aharonov-Bohm Effect, the Pancharatnam Phase, and the Quantum Hall Effect, toward a unified interpretation of all three. Click here for our research project page.

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). OPG 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. Recent publication: Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 25.3, Special Issue, "Ontogenesis Beyond Complexity," June 2020.

HPS Student Research Initiative

As part of Sacramento State's History and Philosophy of Science Program, CPNS Student Research Fellows develop and implement interdisciplinary research projects bridging empirical inquiry within the fields of the natural sciences and mathematics (NSM) into cross-connection with the field of history and philosophy of science (HPS). These faculty supervised student research projects give undergraduates crucial experience in the synthesis of new ideas and their proper investigation via both empirical study and analysis of scholarly literature in the natural sciences, philosophy of science, and history of science. Beyond these goals, the CPNS Student Research Initiative provides students with the unique opportunity to network and collaborate with both CPNS Graduate Research Fellows and CPNS Faculty Research Fellows across multiple institutions, both nationally and internationally.

GLOBAL UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS

Beijing Normal – Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU) – CHINA

(2026-2031) In collaboration with Professor Haipeng Guo, Dean of BNBU's School of General Education and BNBU's President, Professor Zhi Chen, CPNS initiated and orchestrated a 5 year university-level MOU / Cooperation Agreement between CSUS and BNBU, signed by the presidents of both universities on May 20, 2026. This agreement was conceived to extend CPNS’s international collaborative research relationships to the university more broadly, including faculty and student exchange and other related activities.

As an initial implementation of this agreement, in Fall 2026, BNBU students join CSUS students in a 3 unit, upper division seminar & colloquium as a joint offering of the Department of History and the Department of Philosophy: "HIST-PHIL 199: From Potentiality to Actuality: Heisenberg's Rehabilitation of Aristotle in Quantum Mechanics". Led by Michael Epperson (CPNS & Department of History) and Mark Wheeler (CPNS & Department of Philosophy & Office of the President), this course explores the ways in which key concepts in Hellenic natural philosophy have been rehabilitated in modern physics. More information here.

University of Athens - GREECE

(2013-2018) CPNS initiated and orchestrated a university-level MOU / Cooperation Agreement, ratified by the University of Athens Directorate of International Relations, and signed by the presidents of CSUS and the University of Athens on May 23, 2013. This agreement provided the framework to extend CPNS’s international collaborative research relationships to the university more broadly. The agreement facilitated two major grant funded research projects 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 ($572,760) and Experimental Application of the Relational Realist Formalism: A Topological, Sheaf-Theoretic Explication of Quantum Geometric Phases ($181,200). Principal Investigators: Michael Epperson - CPNS-CSUS, and Elias Zafiris - Institute of Mathematics, University of Athens.