Karen Barad

Anthropology American 1956 100 quotes

A theoretical physicist and feminist theorist known for developing the concept of 'agential realism' and her work on quantum physics and ethics.

Quotes by Karen Barad

We are not outside observers of the world. We are entangled in its intra-activity.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

To be entangled is not simply to be intertwined with another, as in the joining of separate entities, but to lack an independent, self-contained existence.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Agential realism is a posthumanist performative account of technoscientific practices.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Matter and meaning are not separate elements that come together; rather, they are co-constitutive.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Knowing is not a matter of acquiring information or forming beliefs about a pregiven world, but rather a direct material engagement with the world.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

The world is a dynamic process of intra-activity.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Ethics is not an external set of rules, but an integral part of the intra-active becoming of the world.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

We need to rethink the very nature of causality, agency, and responsibility.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

The past is never a settled matter.

Interview with Karen Barad: What is the Measure of Nothingness? 2012

Justice is not a state of affairs but a doing, a continual intra-active becoming.

Quantum Entanglements and Hauntological Relations of Inheritance: Dis/continuities, SpaceTime Enfoldings, and Justice-to-Come 2010

The 'I' is not a pregiven entity but an ongoing material-discursive production.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Boundaries are not inherent properties of things but are enacted through specific intra-actions.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Scientific practices are not merely about representing the world, but about making and remaking it.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

We are responsible for the cuts we make, for the boundaries we enact, and for the possibilities we foreclose.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

The world is not composed of things, but of intra-actions.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Disentanglement is not a given, but an ongoing, iterative process.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

The past, present, and future are not distinct, but are entangled in complex ways.

Quantum Entanglements and Hauntological Relations of Inheritance: Dis/continuities, SpaceTime Enfoldings, and Justice-to-Come 2010

Ethics is not a matter of individual choice, but of our entangled responsibilities.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

Reality is not something that exists independently of our practices, but is enacted through them.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007

The very notion of 'nature' and 'culture' are themselves products of specific intra-actions.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning 2007