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 5
... epistemology are among the key con- cerns taken up in this book . Indeed , quantum physics and its philosophical implications and differences in the approaches of Bohr and Heisenberg figure centrally here as well . But this is where the ...
... epistemology are among the key con- cerns taken up in this book . Indeed , quantum physics and its philosophical implications and differences in the approaches of Bohr and Heisenberg figure centrally here as well . But this is where the ...
Page 7
... epistemological one , on the judgment of other people's motives , because if you can't have any knowledge of other people's motives , it's very difficult to come to any objective moral judgment of their behavior . " But how does this ...
... epistemological one , on the judgment of other people's motives , because if you can't have any knowledge of other people's motives , it's very difficult to come to any objective moral judgment of their behavior . " But how does this ...
Page 18
... epistemological and ontological issues - issues concerning the nature of knowledge and the nature of being . And yet these are central elements in a heated debate between Bohr and Heisenberg con- cerning the correct interpretation of ...
... epistemological and ontological issues - issues concerning the nature of knowledge and the nature of being . And yet these are central elements in a heated debate between Bohr and Heisenberg con- cerning the correct interpretation of ...
Page 20
... epistemological issues at hand . But I do want to briefly indulge in this exercise in a limited fashion , recognizing that there is no expectation of providing a rigorous analysis of the important issues at hand simply by making this ...
... epistemological issues at hand . But I do want to briefly indulge in this exercise in a limited fashion , recognizing that there is no expectation of providing a rigorous analysis of the important issues at hand simply by making this ...
Page 24
... epistemological and ontological issues that quantum physics forces us to confront , such as the conditions for the possibility of objectivity , the nature of measurement , the nature of nature and meaning making , and the relationship ...
... epistemological and ontological issues that quantum physics forces us to confront , such as the conditions for the possibility of objectivity , the nature of measurement , the nature of nature and meaning making , and the relationship ...
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