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
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Page 3
... atoms , whose very name , aτoμoo ( atomos ) , means " indivisible " or " uncuttable , " can be broken apart . But matter and meaning cannot be dis- sociated , not by chemical processing , or centrifuge , or nuclear blast . Matter- ing ...
... atoms , whose very name , aτoμoo ( atomos ) , means " indivisible " or " uncuttable , " can be broken apart . But matter and meaning cannot be dis- sociated , not by chemical processing , or centrifuge , or nuclear blast . Matter- ing ...
Page 4
... atoms or electrons - to the problem of what it is possible to know about human behavior ; he is simply drawing a parallel . Using this analogy , Frayn moves rapidly from the realm of epistemology ( questions about the nature of ...
... atoms or electrons - to the problem of what it is possible to know about human behavior ; he is simply drawing a parallel . Using this analogy , Frayn moves rapidly from the realm of epistemology ( questions about the nature of ...
Page 5
... atom bomb for Germany or whether he purposely foiled these efforts to prevent Hitler from getting his hands on new ... atoms , are assumed to be discrete individuals with inherent characteristics ( such as intelligence ...
... atom bomb for Germany or whether he purposely foiled these efforts to prevent Hitler from getting his hands on new ... atoms , are assumed to be discrete individuals with inherent characteristics ( such as intelligence ...
Page 14
... atom bomb project that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people ( a reference to Bohr's contributions to the U.S. bomb proj- ect at Los Alamos following his close escape from the Nazis in 1943 ) .10 It is Bohr ...
... atom bomb project that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people ( a reference to Bohr's contributions to the U.S. bomb proj- ect at Los Alamos following his close escape from the Nazis in 1943 ) .10 It is Bohr ...
Page 22
... atom bomb , Bohr points out that there was an important sense in which he was not in control of the program , but rather the program was controlling him : " Nothing was under anyone's control by that time ! " But if the program is ...
... atom bomb , Bohr points out that there was an important sense in which he was not in control of the program , but rather the program was controlling him : " Nothing was under anyone's control by that time ! " But if the program is ...
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 | |
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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