Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and MeaningMeeting the Universe Halfway is an ambitious book with far-reaching implications for numerous fields in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. In this volume, Karen Barad, theoretical physicist and feminist theorist, elaborates her theory of agential realism. Offering an account of the world as a whole rather than as composed of separate natural and social realms, agential realism is at once a new epistemology, ontology, and ethics. The starting point for Barad’s analysis is the philosophical framework of quantum physicist Niels Bohr. Barad extends and partially revises Bohr’s philosophical views in light of current scholarship in physics, science studies, and the philosophy of science as well as feminist, poststructuralist, and other critical social theories. In the process, she significantly reworks understandings of space, time, matter, causality, agency, subjectivity, and objectivity. In an agential realist account, the world is made of entanglements of “social” and “natural” agencies, where the distinction between the two emerges out of specific intra-actions. Intra-activity is an inexhaustible dynamism that configures and reconfigures relations of space-time-matter. In explaining intra-activity, Barad reveals questions about how nature and culture interact and change over time to be fundamentally misguided. And she reframes understanding of the nature of scientific and political practices and their “interrelationship.” Thus she pays particular attention to the responsible practice of science, and she emphasizes changes in the understanding of political practices, critically reworking Judith Butler’s influential theory of performativity. Finally, Barad uses agential realism to produce a new interpretation of quantum physics, demonstrating that agential realism is more than a means of reflecting on science; it can be used to actually do science. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 85
Page 5
... argue , that is fraught with difficulties . Frayn's play serves as a useful counterpoint to what I hope to accomplish in this book . On the surface , the subject matter may appear similar . Ques- tions of science , politics , ethics ...
... argue , that is fraught with difficulties . Frayn's play serves as a useful counterpoint to what I hope to accomplish in this book . On the surface , the subject matter may appear similar . Ques- tions of science , politics , ethics ...
Page 8
... argues that since there is no way in principle to get around the limits of our knowledge , and we are therefore ... argument for the limits of moral judgment on the basis of quantum physics . But he does see his play as a means of ...
... argues that since there is no way in principle to get around the limits of our knowledge , and we are therefore ... argument for the limits of moral judgment on the basis of quantum physics . But he does see his play as a means of ...
Page 9
... argument to absolve Heisenberg from any responsibility to his- tory . ( Perhaps Heisenberg does indeed deserve ... argues that they were secretly en- gaged in resistance efforts against Hitler . In Powers's book we find this myth ...
... argument to absolve Heisenberg from any responsibility to his- tory . ( Perhaps Heisenberg does indeed deserve ... argues that they were secretly en- gaged in resistance efforts against Hitler . In Powers's book we find this myth ...
Page 18
... argue , on the contrary , that quantum theory leads us out of the morass that takes absolutism and relativism to be the only two possibilities . But understanding how this is so requires a much more nuanced and careful reading of the ...
... argue , on the contrary , that quantum theory leads us out of the morass that takes absolutism and relativism to be the only two possibilities . But understanding how this is so requires a much more nuanced and careful reading of the ...
Page 22
... intentions . But in Bohr's account intentionality cannot be taken for granted : intentions are not preexisting determinate mental states of individ- ual human beings . A sophisticated argument needs to be 22 ENTANGLED BEGINNINGS.
... intentions . But in Bohr's account intentionality cannot be taken for granted : intentions are not preexisting determinate mental states of individ- ual human beings . A sophisticated argument needs to be 22 ENTANGLED BEGINNINGS.
Contents
Meeting the Universe Halfway | 39 |
Diffractions Differences Contingencies and Entanglements That Matter | 71 |
Niels Bohrs PhilosophyPhysics Quantum Physics and the Nature of Knowledge and Reality | 97 |
Agential Realism How MaterialDiscursive Practices Matter | 132 |
Getting Real Technoscientific Practices and the Materialization of Reality | 189 |
Spacetime Reconfigurings Naturalcultural Forces and Changing Topologies of Power | 223 |
Quantum Entanglements Experimental Metaphysics and the Nature of Nature | 247 |
The Ontology of Knowing the Intraactivity of Becoming and the Ethics of Mattering | 353 |
Cascade Experiment | 397 |
The Uncertainty Principle Is Not the Basis of Bohrs Complementarity | 399 |
Controversy concerning the Relationship between Bohrs Principle of Complementarity and Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle | 402 |
Notes | 405 |
References | 477 |
| 493 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
agencies of observation analysis apparatus argue atom bodies Bohr Bohr's Bohr's account boundaries brittlestar Butler causal chapter classical physics complementarity concepts constituted Copenhagen interpretation crucial culture determinate device differential diffraction diffraction grating discursive practices discussion dynamics Einstein electron enacted entail entangled entities epistemological ethics example fact feminist Foucault Frayn gedanken experiment gender Haraway Heisenberg human important indeterminacy individual inherent interaction interference pattern interpretation intra-actions issue iterative material material-discursive matter meaning measurement ment metaphysical microscope momentum nature Niels Bohr nonhuman notion object ongoing ontological optics particle particular performative phenomena phenomenon philosophical physicists position possible posthumanist preexisting production properties quantum entanglement quantum eraser experiment quantum mechanics quantum physics quantum theory question reality reconfiguring relations representationalism result reworking role Schrödinger science studies scientific practices sense separate slit social space spatial specific spin superposition tion uncertainty principle understanding wave function wave-particle duality which-path information