PHIL / HIST 199 - From Potentiality to Actuality: Heisenberg’s Rehabilitation of Aristotle in Quantum Mechanics - Undergraduate Seminar (Fall 2026)

Aug 29, 2026

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PHIL/HIST 199 explores the convergence of intellectual history and philosophy of physics through the rehabilitation of Aristotelian metaphysics in quantum mechanics. The seminar traces a 2,400-year conceptual arc from Aristotle’s Metaphysics Θ and Physics to contemporary event-ontological interpretations of quantum theory, including decoherent histories and topological relational realist frameworks. It focuses on hylomorphism, hylomorphic actuality (energiea) and potentiality (dunamis), and explains how quantum mechanics challenges mechanical-materialist views that treat abstract properties as derivative of concrete particles. Advanced interdisciplinary participation is expected.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Seminar Overview

Intellectual-Historical Arc

Core Conceptual Questions

Interdisciplinary Enrollment

PHIL / HIST 199 From Potentiality to Actuality: Heisenberg’s Rehabilitation of Aristotle in Quantum Mechanics An Upper-Division Undergraduate Seminar / Colloquium – 3 Units [www.csus.edu/cpns](www.csus.edu/cpns) Fall 2026 Tuesday evenings, 90 minutes (time TBD) LIB 3023, Nicholas Petris Room Instructors Michael Epperson CPNS & Department of History [epperson@csus.edu](epperson@csus.edu) Mark Wheeler CPNS & Department of Philosophy [mark.wheeler@csus.edu](mark.wheeler@csus.edu) This seminar investigates one of the most surprising convergences in intellectual history: the rehabilitation of Aristotelian metaphysics—specifically the doctrine of hylomorphism and the interdependent concepts of actuality (energiea) and potentiality (dunamis)—within the conceptual foundations of modern quantum mechanics. Working from both primary sources in ancient natural philosophy and current research in the philosophy of physics, we will trace a 2,400-year conceptual arc from Aristotle's Metaphysics Θ and Physics to event-ontological interpretations of quantum theory, including decoherent (consistent) histories and the topological Relational Realist frameworks. A central aim of the seminar is to understand why the 17th-century mechanical-materialist revolution—rooted in ancient atomism and crystallized in Galileo, Boyle, and Newton—produced a scientific worldview in which abstract properties (forces, fields) are wholly derivative of concrete material particles and their motions. Quantum mechanics fundamentally overturns this picture: quantum potential states are irreducibly abstract yet causally (concretely) efficacious; they evolve to become actual measured (concrete) states yet are not themselves coherently reducible to these concrete actual states. The Aristotelian framework of hylomorphism, potentiality, and actuality—which holds that these are mutually implicative rather than mutually exclusive—provides the conceptual resources to make sense of this. This is an interdisciplinary seminar so we are seeking advanced students interested in bringing their individual expertise in the sciences and humanities into conversation. Instructor permission is required, so if you’re interested in joining us, please email Dr. Epperson [at ](at epperson@csus.edu)[epperson@csus.edu](at epperson@csus.edu)

FAQs

What is the main focus of PHIL/HIST 199?

The seminar investigates how Aristotelian metaphysics—hylomorphism, potentiality, and actuality—can be rehabilitated within the foundations of modern quantum mechanics.

Which quantum approaches are discussed in the course?

Topics include decoherent (consistent) histories and topological relational realist frameworks, framed through event-ontological interpretations of quantum theory.

Why does the seminar emphasize the mechanical-materialist revolution?

It contrasts a 17th-century worldview in which forces and fields are derivative of material particles with quantum mechanics, which treats quantum potential states as abstract yet causally efficacious.

Aug 29, 2026

Upload by Paura