On "Meeting the Universe Halfway" by Karen Barad

This book says something like this.
Matter (I) is a phenomenon that becomes matter (I), and through the internal connections of each (you and I), an action (communication) occurs. The observer (I) and the observed (you) cannot be separated. Therefore, ethics are necessary there.

If you ask me, rational and logical writing is not suited for describing this.

　　　I am a dog, and I am a rainbow. When I observe a rainbow,
　　　the rainbow also looks at me. And so, I become a rainbow-human.
　　(The dog and rainbow I am looking at cannot be separated from me)

Isn't that just schizophrenic madness? How else could it be expressed other than through poetic language?

////// Book Introduction and Summary //////

Karen Barad (1956-) is a theoretical physicist, and with this book, "Meeting the Universe Halfway," the concept of agential realism became clear. It posits that in this world, an "object" does not exist as an individual entity beforehand, but is generated from phenomena through "intra-action." This intra-action arises from the "entanglement" of various "relations." Agency is "relation."

Barad's specialty is the physics of Niels Bohr (1885-1962), and agential realism inherits Bohr's quantum physics. For us to "know" something is not to obtain knowledge, but a practice of creating differences. Knowing and being are mutually inclusive. We know not from the outside, but as part of the world.

Separating epistemology from ontology is an echo of metaphysics, and Barad does not recognize an inherent difference between human and non-human, subject and object, mind and body, or matter and discourse. Treating the question of existence and the question of cognition on the same plane?
　It suggests that all matter in this universe, including space and time, does not exist as predetermined things, but emerges from the entanglement and intra-action of related parts.

New materialism goes beyond the conventional view that matter is merely a passive existence, considering that matter itself is active and has the power to shape the world. It is a theory that phenomena, not things, are the basic units of existence, and that all existence is composed of the "ontological inseparability of 'agencies' that intra-act" called phenomena.

It is impossible to separate the "measured object" from "human description." We consider what we call "reality" to be a dynamically variable network of interacting existences. Agential realism integrates the quantum theory of physicist Niels Bohr and the post-structuralism of philosophers Judith Butler and Michel Foucault. Agential realism criticizes "representationalism" and "individualist metaphysics." Representationalism is an attitude that assumes an ontological distinction between a representation and what it claims to represent.

Instead of interaction, Barad introduces the coined term
intra-action, positing that entangled agencies are mutually constituted. Barad believes that things do not exist first, but are constituted from within relationships. I do not exist individually, but am a phenomenon, and you, too, are a phenomenon and a relationship. The relationship of relationships becomes an action.If you put this into language, it becomes poetry itself.

Relata do not exist prior to relations; rather, phenomenon-internal-relata emerge through specific intra-actions. Matter is a phenomenon in the process of materialization. Matter is not a fixed essence, but something that generates while intra-acting. It is not a "thing" but an "act."

Relying on Bohr's assertion that "the boundary between the 'observed object' and the 'observing agency' is undecidable," Barad argues that "the apparatus performs a cut that distinguishes the observed object from the observing agency." In other words, one can only give meaning to specific variables by choosing a specific apparatus. Barad calls the operation of cutting out a moment from an event where the observer-observing apparatus-observed object are connected in advance an "agential cut."

In addition to this, after evaluating Butler's theory that the boundary between discourse and matter is ambiguous, Barad sounds an alarm regarding the practice of knowledge-discourse-power. She argues that agential cuts must take responsibility for exclusions. From the standpoint of agential realism, because the observed object and the observing subject are entangled, she asserts that "the practices of knowing and being are not separable, but mutually inclusive." Furthermore, Barad argues that an "ethico-onto-epistemology" is necessary.

According to Barad, phenomena and things do not exist prior to interaction, but appear through "specific intra-actions." In other words, "relata do not exist prior to relations; rather, phenomenon-internal-relata emerge through specific intra-actions." Barad states, "Matter is not a fixed essence, but a substance that generates while intra-acting; it is not a 'thing' but an 'act,' and a solidification of agency."

　　"The practices of knowing and being are not separable,
　　　but are mutually inclusive."

Barad expresses this as "onto-epistemology."