On the Dubious Merit of Ontologizing Bohr: Reading Barad (Diffractively) with Merleau-Ponty

Booth, Robert (2023) On the Dubious Merit of Ontologizing Bohr: Reading Barad (Diffractively) with Merleau-Ponty. Environmental Philosophy. ISSN 1718-0198

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Abstract

Despite thinking that an appropriately nonanthropocentric approach to the more-than-human world requires understanding phenomena to be ontologically basic, Karen Barad engages with phenomenology only fleetingly. Here, I suggest that Barad ought to take Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology more seriously for two reasons. First, Barad’s objections to his prospects for a suitably nonanthropocentric phenomenology rely upon a misdirected charge of representationalism. Second, Merleau-Ponty offers theoretical and methodological tools corrective to our tendencies toward metaphysical and behavioral colonialism which align with Barad’s project, yet, insofar as her agential realism remains committed to a very strong metaphysical naturalism, appear unavailable to her.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	This is the accepted manuscript version of an article, accepted for publication in Environmental Philosophy.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities
Depositing User:	Robert Booth
Date Deposited:	07 Aug 2023 08:53
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2024 15:22
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4008

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