From the Publisher
In Process and Reality and other works, Alfred North Whitehead struggled to come to terms with the impact the new science of quantum mechanics would have on metaphysics.
This ambitious book is the first extended analysis of the intricate relationships between relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and Whitehead's cosmology. Michael Epperson illuminates the intersection of science and philosophy in Whitehead's work-and details Whitehead's attempts to fashion an ontology coherent with quantum anomalies.
Including a nonspecialist introduction to quantum mechanics, Epperson adds an essential new dimension to our understanding of Whitehead-and of the constantly enriching encounter between science and philosophy in our century.
What People Are Saying
IAN G. BARBOUR
"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."
—author of When Science Meets Religion
JOHN B. COBB JR.
"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."
—Director, Center for Process Studies
DAVID RAY GRIFFIN
"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."
—author of Religion and Scientific Naturalism:
Overcoming the Conflicts
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