Michael Epperson

Michael Epperson is a philosopher, research professor and founding director of the Consortium for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences at California State University Sacramento and Founding Director of the University's History and Philosophy of Science Program. He specializes in the historical and philosophical foundations of physics, with an emphasis on quantum theory and its rehabilitation of ancient Hellenic ideas about the relationship between mathematics and nature. More generally, he explores the philosophical implications underlying recent innovations in quantum mechanics, cosmology, and complexity theory, with an approach grounded in the study of the historical evolution of the conceptual frameworks central to these disciplines. Epperson did his doctoral work in metaphysics, 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" (Fordham University Press, 2004, 2nd ed. 2012) was written under the direction of his two supervisors, philosopher David Tracy and physicist Peter Hodgson, Head of the Nuclear Physics Theoretical Group at the University of Oxford. His follow-on work, "Foundations of Relational Realism: A Topological Approach to Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Nature" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), co-authored with quantum theorist and mathematician Elias Zafiris (Ph.D., Theoretical Physics, Imperial College, University of London) explores the ontological significance of potentia and contextuality in quantum mechanics, toward a mereotopological, relational interpretation. Epperson's philosophical interests also include ethics and just war theory, and his work in these areas includes the 2005 documentary film "The 11th Day: Crete 1941" (writer, producer) which chronicles the story of the Cretan civilian resistance against German occupation in World War II. The film received critical acclaim in publications including The Chicago Tribune, Canada's National Post, The Sacramento Bee, and Newsday. Exhibitions have included a special advance screening requested by members of the United States Congress, held at the Capitol, and a screening at the British Embassy in Athens, Greece.