Michael Epperson

This presentation explores the fundamental categorical presuppositions of quantum theory —i.e., its philosophical first principles, two of which find their correlative reflection in the categorical presuppositions of Islamic and Judeo-Christian philosophical theology: [1] the universality of logical causality, by which the reasonableness of the universe is presupposed; this is exemplified in quantum mechanics as the presupposed universality of the axioms of propositional logic—viz., the presupposition of an orthonormal measurement basis / Boolean algebra of observables in quantum measurement; [2] the presupposition of both primordial and consequent cosmogonic states of reality, reflected microcosmically as the presupposition of initial and final system states in quantum measurement.

Amid the wide variety of interpretations of quantum mechanics, the notion of a fully coherent ontological interpretation has seen a promising evolution over the last few decades. Despite this progress, however, the old dualistic categorical constraints of subjectivity and objectivity, correlate with the metrically restricted definition of local and global, have remained largely in place – a reflection of the broader, persistent inheritance of these comfortable strictures throughout the evolution of modern science. If one traces this inheritance back to its ancient roots in Plato and Aristotle, it is clear that the coherence, scientific utility, and historical durability of the various natural philosophies that followed have been directly proportional to their commitment, tacit or explicit, to object-oriented realism. As Simondon might put it, it is a commitment to the primacy of individuated substance over the process of individuation. For Whitehead, it is the misplaced assimilation of becoming to being, of potentiality to actuality. Quantum mechanics has challenged this commitment with a combined breadth and depth of force that far exceeds any other theory in the history of science. The theory’s objectively demonstrable empirical application is manifest only by way of a fundamentally subjective, context-dependent mechanism of measurement. More compelling still, actual system states are always actualizations of locally contextualized yet globally conditioned potential system states, such that “globally objective” reality is no longer merely the object of local measurement, but also its product. Thus, any coherent, ontological interpretation of quantum theory must include a conceptual framework by which objectivity and subjectivity, actuality and potentiality, global and local, being and becoming, individuated fact and process of individuation, are no longer understood as merely epistemic, mutually exclusive category pairs descriptive of an already extant, closed reality – but rather as mutually implicative ontological categories explicative of an ontogenetic, open reality-in-process.

Presented by the Greek Consulate General in Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University: The ethics and warfare documentary film The 11^th Day: Crete 1941, written and co-produced by Michael Epperson. The film chronicles The Battle of Crete and the civilian Cretan resistance against Hitler’s occupation forces in World War II. The film was presented, with introductory remarks, by Ioannis Stamatekos, Consul General for Greece. Loyola Marymount University, McIntosh Center, 8-10 pm.

https://cal.lmu.edu/event/the_11th_day_crete_1941

https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/philosophy/events/quantumphenomenology.php

Amid the wide variety of interpretations of quantum mechanics, the notion of a fully coherent ontological interpretation has seen a promising evolution over the past few decades. Despite this progress, however, the old dualistic strictures of subjectivity and objectivity have remained largely in place—a reflection of the broader, persistent inheritance of these comfortable strictures throughout the evolution of modern science. If one traces this inheritance back to its ancient roots in Plato and Aristotle, it is clear that the coherence, scientific utility, and historical durability of the various natural philosophies that followed have been directly proportional to their commitment, tacit or explicit, to object-oriented realism. Quantum mechanics has challenged this commitment like no other theory in the history of science. It is at once the most empirically sound fundamental physical theory ever conceived, and the most paradoxical; the theory’s objectively demonstrable empirical application is produced only by way of a fundamentally subjective, context-dependent mechanism of measurement. More troubling still, by this mechanism, reality is no longer merely the object of measurement, but also its product. Thus, any coherent, ontological interpretation of quantum theory must include a conceptual framework that relieves this paradox—a framework by which objectivity and subjectivity are no longer understood as mutually exclusive aspects of an already extant, closed reality, but rather as mutually implicative aspects of an ontogenetic, open, reality-in-process.

As argued by Kastner, Kauffman & Epperson ["Taking Heisenberg's Potentia Seriously" International Journal of Quantum Foundations, 4:2 (2018): 158-172], quantum theory is best understood as requiring an ontological dualism of res extensa and res potentia, where the latter is understood per Heisenberg's original proposal, and the former is roughly equivalent to Descartes' 'extended substance.' However, this is not a dualism of mutually exclusive substances in the classical Cartesian sense of mutually exclusive ontological extants. Rather, res potentia and res extensa are properly understood in the Whiteheadian sense of mutually implicative ontological extants, such that each requires reference to the other not only for its formal definition, but more important, for its coherent function in the definition and evolution of quantum mechanical systems. When understood as dipolar ontological relata, potentiality and actuality become foundational to the resolution of key conceptual challenges in quantum theory-in particular, nonlocality, entanglement, null measurements, and wave function collapse.

https://www.santafe.edu/events/thirty-years-complex-thinking-celebration-stuart-k

For the past half century, substantial progress has been achieved in exploring various modes of multi-level emergence in nonlinear dynamical systems (Kauffman, 1993). However, such emergence has typically been viewed as merely epistemic and, via supervenience concepts, mostly reducible to physics substructure— substantive models for genuine novelty at higher levels, or ontic emergence, have remained elusive. Recently, research deploying a combination of category-sheaf theoretic tools, the decoherence approach to quantum physics interpretation, and philosophic analyses of potentia has enabled a new route to understanding ontic emergence. Rules of transition emerge from the local to the global and conversely such that global event structures are consistently maintained and augmented; concurrently variable local Boolean frames [providing simple yes-no logic with the principle of the excluded middle] contextualize the actualization of events, and " each new actualized event creates a novelly integrated whole. " (Epperson and Zafiris, 2013, 344). Overall, this quantum-based scheme encompasses the inclusion of several seemingly incompatible dualities (input-output, local-global, quantized-continuous, actual-potential, among others), which are found to be mutually implicative at a deeper level. Our analysis reveals that it is impossible to conceptualize one principle within such dipolar pairs in abstraction from its counterpart principle. Such category theoretic analysis provides a rigorous mathematical means for " relating relations, " for explicating the role of potential relations and context in quantum processes, and for the localization of quantum observables with respect to local Boolean contexts. Indeed, for any quantum system, and thus for any physical system, such context specification is essential because the only closed system, if that, is the universe at large. Consequently, full analysis of any physical system necessarily goes beyond the dyadic relation of input-output to the triadic relation of input-output-context. Philosopher James Bradley has stated that three of the most fundamental questions of ontology are that of (1) origin, (2) difference, and (3) order. Pre-given facts and potentia provide the 'origin' (Peircean firsts), basic quantum processes of input-output yield the 'difference' (Peircean seconds), and such process, with its actualization of potentia, inevitably requires (at whatever scale) local Boolean context, thus the Peircean triad, input-output-context, and resultant 'order'. The methodological goals of reduction and context independence can often represent good approximations, but inevitably just that—never strict entailment. At multi-scale, physical constraints and relationships, all emergent from fundamental quantum process, enable high levels of determination, yet there is inevitably a context, some delimitation of possible constraints, and real (non-Boolean, pre-space?) potentia that are part of ongoing processes, at whatever level/scale, the actualization of events — " one darn thing after another. " Semiotic relations involving an 'interpretant' may be limited to biosemiotics, but triadic relations are fundamental to quantum process, and thus to all natural systems.

https://www.csus.edu/cpns/events/2018%20UCB%20Biosemiotics_Abstracts.pdf

The Beyond Complexity seminar addresses the growing consensus in the sciences and the humanities that the complexity of living matter cannot be adequately captured by information theoretic explanations. To engage this complexity, this seminar brings together a vibrant and diverse group of scientists and scholars from across North America and Europe to participate in a series of workshops and public events hosted by Arizona State University.