Abstract
We found solace in the belief that we were making progress in transcending the constraints of traditional ontology. Or did we? In this essay, the author delves into the intricacies of ontology, tracing its evolution from Heidegger's deconstruction efforts to Jean-Luc Nancy's radicalization of the “diffraction of being.” Nancy's “philosophy of finitude” unfolds as a profound critique of traditional ontology. However, over time, the very concepts meant to dismantle ontological universality became all-encompassing and self-referential themselves, inadvertently reinstating the universality they sought to dissolve. A parallel ambivalence toward ontology surfaces in Karen Barad's philosophy, where an even more radical approach to diffraction is proposed, grounded in quantum (field) theory. Radical interrelatedness of matter and meaning, termed “entanglement” or “spacetimemattering,” takes aim at dispelling old metaphysical illusions. Yet the radical entanglement seems to hinder intentional dismissal of illusions, prompting a methodologically doubtful, highly tautological turn to “entangled ontology” or “onto-epistemology.” This provokes a fundamental question: in deconstructing traditional views, including the ontological perspective itself, did the contemporary propensity toward the diffractive and the diffracted (against essences and essentialism) reinstate the very ontology it sought to bypass or dismantle? Nancy summoned us to move beyond being. But the spell of ontology remains intact—fractured-unfractured, broken-unbroken, lost but lasting.
