얽힘의 존재론과 책임의 윤리: 카렌 바라드의 “행위적 실재론(agential realism)”을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper attempts a critical reading of Karen Barad's agential realism from the perspective of theological realism. Criticizing the modern Western philosophical tradition's notion of the "individual as a solitary actor" for distorting reality, Barad proposes a new-materialist concept of "an ethico-onto-epistem-ology of entanglement." Focusing on key concepts in Barad's theory, such as intra-action, phenomena, diffraction, and response-ability, this paper positively evaluates the insights that Barad's agential realism has contributed to traditional ontological interpretations. Particularly, Barad’s argument is taken seriously, in which binary oppositional ontological perspectives—such as society and nature, human and non-human, discourse and matter—have led to hierarchical ordering among entities, fostering inferior views of nature, the non-human, and matter, and enabling anthropocentric exploitation. However, the researcher criticizes that within this "ontology of entanglement," human beings, as material entities, are denied the ontological capacity to transcend material conditions through meaning or intention. This is seen as a failure to fully recognize reality. While asserting that entanglement with entities that exist without mass, size, or volume (such as the divine) could serve as a driving force to overcome current oppressive and unjust material conditions, the paper raises concerns about the ambiguity of Barad’s agential realism in relation to the ethic of responsibility.