Is matter ethical? Is ethics material? An enquiry into the ethical dimension of Karen Barad’s ethico-onto-epistemological project

Abstract

ABSTRACT New materialism posits a non-anthropocentric ontology which gives rise to expanding the definition of the ethical subject and ethical relation. According to Karen Barad, who is one of the most prominent researchers in the field, ethicality exceeds the human domain and enfolds the whole of existence. Her project of ethico-onto-epistemology grounds ethics in ontology, perceiving it not as a product of a ‘social contract’, but one of the properties of matter, a phenomenon emerging from meaningful ‘intra-actions’ between entities. This paper explores the possibility of viewing Barad’s ethical project in the context of conventional understanding of ethics. It also considers the practicality of the philosopher’s theory. Particular attention is given to the question of how the concepts of individual freedom and responsibility, which appear to be some of the fundamental notions of ‘traditional’ ethics, can be reconciled with Barad’s new materialistic notions of intra-activity, mattering and split agency which question the idea of radical individualism.