Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead

Michael Epperson is the founding director of the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at California State University, Sacramento, where he is a research professor and principal investigator.

"Starting from recent interpretations of paradoxical experiments in quantum physics--such as those on nonlocality and decoherence--Michael Epperson has done a wonderful job of exploring in detail the remarkable parallels in Alfred North Whitehead's philosophical analysis of the transition from potentiality to actuality in elementary events." -- -Ian G. Barbour author of "Religion and Science" (Gifford Lectures Series) "This book explores the relationships between Whiteheadian philosophy and quantum mechanics in quite significant detail (including discussion of all nine Categorial Obligations!) Background needed to understand technical aspects of either physics or of Whitehead's philosophy are concisely reviewed." -- -Joseph Earley, Sr. The Review of Metaphysics "The book is highly recommended to everybody working on or being seriously interested in the ontology of quantum physics." -- -Frank Hattich Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics "Many of us in the 'process' community have felt a general congruity between Whitehead's cosmology and quantum theory, even though the latter may have directly affected Whitehead's conceptuality only tangentially. We have been glad that in the past decade there has been growing interest among quantum theorists in Whitehead's thought. We especially welcome this remarkable volume. It proposes a correlation of Whitehead's quite technical analysis of the phases of the concrescence of momentary occasions and the strange account of quantum events to which the evidence has driven physicists. At the very least, Michael Epperson has put forward ideas that warrant close attention and point fruitful directions for further inquiry. We may have here a still more successful work, which provides a definitive philosophical ground for quantum theory. In either case, this is an important, as well as a brilliant, book." -- -John B. Cobb, Jr. Director, Center for Process Studies "Coming at a time when interest in correlating physics and Whitehead's philosophy has been expanding exponentially, the appearance of Epperson's book is an event of first importance. Employing the decoherence-based interpretation of quantum mechanics, Epperson shows that it can be correlated rather precisely with Whitehead's notion of 'concrescence.' Besides thereby showing how Whitehead's philosophy brings out the ontological significance of quantum mechanics, Epperson also demonstrates that students of Whitehead's philosophy will understand it better by seeing quantum mechanics as a specific exemplification of its general principles." -- -David Ray Griffin author of "Religion and Scientific Naturalism: Overcoming the Conflicts"