Intersections with Derridean deconstruction

pp. 115-151

in: Makoto Katsumori, Niels Bohr's complementarity, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

In the recent and contemporary currents of thought commonly called postmodernism and poststructuralism, quantum theory has often been cited as an example of a new form of knowledge that supposedly goes beyond the conceptual framework of modern philosophy and science. Until fairly lately, however, this line of characterization and invocation of quantum theory was in many cases hardly sustained by solid conceptual analysis of the subject. It is only since the closing years of the twentieth century that quantum theory and, linked with it, Bohr's complementarity have become systematically explored with reference to the thematic of postmodernism, poststructuralism, or deconstruction. These studies, including Michel Bitbol's and Karen Barad's inquiries, from their respective viewpoints shed new light on the philosophical problems of quantum theory, which hitherto have not been adequately treated within the conventional frames of the history and philosophy of science. In particular, as far as Bohr's complementarity in relation to Derridean deconstruction is concerned, arguably the most elaborate work to date has been developed by Arkady Plotnitsky.