Barad 2007

Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.

“Matter and meaning are not separate elements. They are inextricably fused together, and no event, no matter how energetic, can tear them asunder.” (3)

”Mattering is simultaneously a matter of substance and significance, most evidently perhaps when it is the nature of matter that is in question, when the smallest parts of matter are found to be capable of exploding deeply entrenched ideas and large cities. Perhaps this is why contemporary physics makes the inescapable entanglement of matters of being, knowing, and doing, of ontology, epistemology, and ethics, of fact and value, so tangible, so poignant.” (3)

”In this book I offer a rigorous examination and elaboration of the implications of Bohr’s philosophy-physics (physics and philosophy were one practice for him, not two). I avoid using analogical methodology; instead, I carefully identify, examine, explicate, and explore the philosophical issues. I am not interested in drawing analogies between particles and people, the micro and the macro, the scientific and the social, nature and culture; rather, I am interested in understanding the 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 between discursive practices in the world.” (24)

”What is needed is a reassessment of physical and metaphysical notions that explicitly or implicitly rely on old ideas about the physical world — that is, we need a reassessment of these notions in terms of the best physical theories we have.” (24)

“diffractive” methodological approach: “My aim in developing such a diffractive methodology is to provide a transdisciplinary approach that remains rigorously attentive to important details of specialized arguments within a given field, in an effort to foster constructive engagements across (and a reworking of_ disciplinary boundaries.” (25)

“agential realism” — the “epistemological-ontological-ethical ramework that provides an understanding of the role of human ‘’and’’ nonhuman, material ‘’and’’ discursive, and natural ‘’and’’ cultural factors in scientific and other social-material practices, thereby moving such considerations beyond the well-worn debates that pit constructivism against realism, agency against structure, and idealism against materialism.” (26)