DOCSLIB.ORG

Empirical Philosophy 1 1.1 Making Paris Visible 5 1.2 the Path Towards ‘Empirical Philosophy’ 11 1.3 the Power of Addition 17

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Empirical Philosophy 1 1.1 Making Paris Visible 5 1.2 the Path Towards ‘Empirical Philosophy’ 11 1.3 the Power of Addition 17 Bruno Latour Key Contemporary Thinkers Lee Braver, Heidegger John Burgess, Kripke Claire Colebrook and Jason Maxwell, Agamben Jean-Pierre Couture, Sloterdijk Rosemary Cowan, Cornel West George Crowder, Isaiah Berlin Gareth Dale, Karl Polanyi Colin Davis, Levinas Oliver Davis, Jacques Rancière Gerard de Vries, Bruno Latour Reidar Andreas Due, Deleuze Edward Fullbrook and Kate Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir Andrew Gamble, Hayek Neil Gascoigne, Richard Rorty Nigel Gibson, Fanon Graeme Gilloch, Siegfried Kracauer Graeme Gilloch, Walter Benjamin Phillip Hansen, Hannah Arendt Sean Homer, Fredric Jameson Christina Howells, Derrida Simon Jarvis, Adorno Rachel Jones, Irigaray Sarah Kay, Žižek S. K. Keltner, Kristeva Valerie Kennedy, Edward Said Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls Moya Lloyd, Judith Butler James McGilvray, Chomsky, 2nd Edition Lois McNay, Foucault Dermot Moran, Edmund Husserl Michael Moriarty, Roland Barthes Marie-Eve Morin, Jean-Luc Nancy Stephen Morton, Gayatri Spivak Timothy Murphy, Antonio Negri William Outhwaite, Habermas, 2nd Edition Kari Palonen, Quentin Skinner Ed Pluth, Badiou John Preston, Feyerabend Chris Rojek, Stuart Hall Severin Schroeder, Wittgenstein Anthony Paul Smith, Laruelle Dennis Smith, Zygmunt Bauman Felix Stalder, Manuel Castells Georgia Warnke, Gadamer Jonathan Wolff, Robert Nozick Christopher Zurn, Axel Honneth Bruno Latour Gerard de Vries polity Copyright © Gerard de Vries 2016 The right of Gerard de Vries to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2016 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5062-3 (hardback) ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5063-0 (paperback) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Vries, Gerard de, 1948- Title: Bruno Latour / Gerard de Vries. Description: Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016001169| ISBN 9780745650623 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780745650630 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Latour, Bruno. | Science–Social aspects. | Science and civilization. | Science–Philosophy. Classification: LCC Q175.46 .V75 2016 | DDC 303.48/3–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/201600116 Typeset in 10.5 on 12 pt Palatino by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com Contents Preface vii Abbreviations ix 1 Empirical Philosophy 1 1.1 Making Paris visible 5 1.2 The path towards ‘empirical philosophy’ 11 1.3 The power of addition 17 2 Science Studies 21 2.1 The ‘Sociology of Scientific Knowledge’ 26 2.2 An anthropologist visits a laboratory 31 2.3 Anatomy of a scientific paper 37 2.4 Realism in and about science 46 3 Science and Society 53 3.1 ‘The Pasteurization of France: War and Peace of Microbes’ 57 3.2 ‘The Pasteurization of France: Irreductions’ 63 3.3 Another turn after the social turn 68 3.4 The turn to ontology 76 4 Another Social Science 82 4.1 Deploying what makes up the social 87 4.2 Deploying how the social is stabilized 95 4.3 Shifting focus 100 vi Contents 5 A Philosophy for Our Time 114 5.1 ‘We Have Never Been Modern’ 118 5.2 The modern Constitution 124 5.3 Relationism 129 5.4 Cosmopolitics 136 6 A Comparative Anthropology of the Moderns 149 6.1 A research protocol for a comparative anthropology 153 6.2 ‘Empirical philosophy’ redefined 166 6.3 Enquiring modes of existence 174 6.4 The modern experience: fifteen modes 181 6.5 Facing ‘Gaia’ 191 References 202 Name Index 212 Subject Index 215 Preface “When men cannot observe, they don’t have ideas; they have obsessions,” V. S. Naipaul wrote. The modern philosophical tradi- tion holds observation in high regard; nevertheless it is obsessed by a worldview that feeds off dualities – between humans and nonhumans, nature and society, facts and values, science and poli- tics. Bruno Latour wants us to observe better, with a finer resolu- tion. To become more attentive, to redescribe the world we live in, and to better understand our current predicament, he introduced ethnography and comparative anthropology as vital methods for philosophy. Latour is an ‘empirical philosopher’. This introduction to his work follows Latour in his footsteps, both as an ethnographer and as a philosopher. The light tone of much of Latour’s writing may easily conceal its profundity. Latour takes issue with much of what we take for granted as intuitively evident. By following Latour’s moves closely and by providing some background from science studies, philosophy and sociology, to show to what extent and in what sense Latour’s work stands out against the tradition, I hope to ease access to what Latour claims to be a richer vocabulary to account for who we are and what we value, that is, a better, fairer common sense. Latour is a prolific writer on an amazingly varied set of topics, so some selection was inevitable. To introduce his empirical work, Latour’s studies on science, law and religion will be discussed in detail; they led to substantial philosophical innovations. Latour’s philosophy – his thoughts on science, on actor-network theory, cosmopolitics and his anthropology of the Moderns – is introduced viii Preface roughly in the order in which they took shape. But this is not an intellectual biography; the historical and intellectual context in which Latour’s thoughts evolved is only touched upon. That also holds for the reception of his work. This is an introduction to Latour’s philosophy; not to science studies as a discipline, nor to the work of those who have followed Latour, used his ideas, or thought they did. To write about a living author is an unquiet affair. With the advantage of hindsight it becomes apparent that Latour’s work has been driven by a coherent heuristic. But those who followed his work were often puzzled when he took his thoughts to new levels and new domains or when he introduced conceptual innovations. We met in the early 1980s and stayed in contact ever since. Time and again he forced me to rethink his position, as well as my own. I want to thank Bruno Latour and my Dutch friends and col- leagues Huub Dijstelbloem, Rob Hagendijk, Hans Harbers, Josta de Hoog, Noortje Marres and Annemiek Nelis for their comments on the draft of this book. I’m also very grateful to John Naughton for his comments and for helping me out with the subtleties of the English grammar. As always, my gratitude to Pauline extends far beyond her comments on my writing. Abbreviations For full bibliographical details see the References. AIME An Inquiry into Modes of Existence – An Anthropology of the Moderns AR Aramis or the Love of Technology CB La Clef de Berlin et autre leçons d’un amateur de sciences CM Petite reflexion sur le culte moderne des dieux faitiches FG Face à Gaïa ICON Iconoclash – Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art IRR Irreductions (part 2 of The Pasteurization of France, cited by paragraph number) LL Laboratory Life – The Social Construction of Scientific Facts LL2 Laboratory Life – The Construction of Scientific Facts (2nd edition) ML The Making of Law MTP Making Things Public – Atmospheres of Democracy NBM We Have Never Been Modern PF The Pasteurization of France PH Pandora’s Hope – Essays on the Reality of Science Studies PN Politics of Nature – How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy PVI Paris ville invisible RAS Reassembling the Social – An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory REJ Rejoicing – Or the Torments of Religious Speech SA Science in Action SPI The Science of Passionate Interests 1 Empirical Philosophy A truly bewildering Wunderkammer. The collection of Bruno Latour’s publications brings an early-modern cabinet of curiosities to mind. Their subject matters range from laboratory life in Nobel Prize winner Roger Guillemin’s Salk Institute (LL); the shared history of microbes, microbiologists and society (PF); the tragic fate of an innovative public transport system (AR); file handling and the passage of law at the French supreme court for adminis- trative law, the Conseil d’État (ML); geopolitics in the epoch of the Anthropocene (FG); religion (REJ); economics (SPI); ethnopsychia- try (CM); modernity (NBM, AIME); to Paris (PVI), politics (PN, MTP) and philosophy of science (SA, PH). Pick up any of Latour’s books and you will be guided again through a maze of surprising connections – from the technical details of a rotary motor to meet- ings at the Transportation Ministry and a photo-op with French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac; from Pasteur’s laboratory in Paris to a farm in Pouilly-le-Fort; from the Conseil d’État in session to its mail room and to the file folders, stamps and paperclips in a sec- retary’s cubicle; from a dialogue between lovers to Fra Angelico’s fresco of the empty tomb in Florence; or from the Salk Institute’s lab benches to the hectic travel schedule of its boss on his way to meet an endless array of colleagues, firms and high-level civil servants.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Latour, Foucault, and Post-Truth: the Role and Function of Critique in the Era of the Truth Crisis." Le Foucaldien 6, No
    Research How to Cite: Flatscher, Matthias, and Sergej Seitz. "Latour, Foucault, and Post-Truth: The Role and Function of Critique in the Era of the Truth Crisis." Le foucaldien 6, no. 1 (2020): 6, 1–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/ lefou.83 Published: 05 June 2020 Peer Review: This is an English translation of a German article that has been peer-reviewed through the double-blind process of Le foucaldien, which is a journal published by the Open Library of Humanities. Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Open Access: Le foucaldien is a peer-reviewed open-access journal. Digital Preservation: The Open Library of Humanities and all its journals are digitally preserved in the CLOCKSS scholarly archive service. Flatscher, Matthias, and Sergej Seitz. "Latour, Foucault, and Post-Truth: The Role and Function of Critique in the Era of the Truth Crisis." Le foucaldien 6, no. 1 (2020): 6, 1–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/lefou.83 RESEARCH Latour, Foucault, and Post-Truth: The Role and Function of Critique in the Era of the Truth Crisis Matthias Flatscher1 and Sergej Seitz2 1 University of Vienna, AT 2 University of Innsbruck, AT Corresponding author: Sergej Seitz ([email protected]) This paper, first published in German in Le foucaldien 4, no.
    [Show full text]
  • Metaphysics Or Metaphors for the Anthropocene? Scientific Naturalism and the Agency of Things
    Open Philosophy 2018; 1: 191–212 Patrick Gamez* Metaphysics or Metaphors for the Anthropocene? Scientific Naturalism and the Agency of Things https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2018-0014 Received June 17, 2018; accepted July 31, 2018 Abstract: In this paper, I provide the outlines of an alternative metaphilosophical orientation for Continental philosophy, namely, a form of scientific naturalism that has proximate roots in the work of Bachelard and Althusser. I describe this orientation as an “alternative” insofar as it provides a framework for doing justice to some of the motivations behind the recent revival of metaphysics in Continental philosophy, in particular its ecological-ethical motivations. In the second section of the paper, I demonstrate how ecological-ethical issues motivate new metaphysicians like Bruno Latour, Jane Bennett, Timothy Morton, Ian Bogost, and Graham Harman to impute to objects real features of agency. I also try to show how their commitments lead to deep ambiguities in their metaphysical projects. In the final section, I outline a type of scientific naturalism in Continental philosophy that parallels the sort of naturalism championed by Quine, both conceptually and historically, and suggest that it might serve our ecological-ethical purposes better. Keywords: speculative realism, vital materialism, environmental ethics, non-anthropocentrism, Bachelard, Althusser, Continental philosophy 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview The landscape of Continental philosophy has changed radically in the early 21st century. The last 15 years have seen a resurgence of speculative philosophy, rationalisms, and realisms of all stripes. We see this in the “new materialism” of Diana Coole and others, the Deleuzian realism of Manuel Delanda, the “object-oriented philosophy” of Graham Harman, and many others.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Description: the Specific Objectives of the Course Are As
    OLLI COURSE: UC-BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA WINTER 2019- January 28th to March 11th, 2019 FRENCH THINKERS Time: Monday 1:00-3:00pm Room: 41B University Hall, 2199 Addison St, Berkeley Instructors: Dr. Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite Guest Lectures: Professors Harold Wilhite and Claire Kramsch [email protected] Course description: This course provides a stimulating and accessible introduction to France's extremely rich philosophical tradition beyond Descartes´ s investigation of the bases and possible limits of human knowledge, which constitutes a key text in shifting the emphasis towards the power of human reason. France has an extremely rich philosophical tradition, and French thinkers have played a crucial role in the formulation and development of modern Western thought. In the 18th century, the century of the Enlightenment, all forms of culture and writing bear witness to an extraordinarily fertile period, when human knowledge, reason, society and politics are all rethought in the light of authority being vested in humanity itself. Later 19th century thinkers develop this in the direction of founding scientific studies of society and humanity's place within it. In the 20th century, existentialism, structuralism, post-structuralism and post-modernism have been internationally influential on the development of contemporary thought. The aim of this course is to offer an introduction to this body of literature, and to enable you to make connections across theories of culture, and theories of politics and society, as well as gaining an insight into some of the key philosophical questions: how do we live, what do we live for, how do we justify our values, how do we argue for change? All teaching is in English.
    [Show full text]
  • Paris: Invisible City Bruno Latour & Emilie Hermant
    1 Paris: Invisible City Bruno Latour & Emilie Hermant Translated from the French by Liz Carey-Libbrecht Corrected February 2006 by Valérie Pihet This translation is being given free of charge, please do not use it without acknowledging the original source on the web and the original printed version in French: Bruno Latour. and Emilie Hermant (1998). Paris ville invisible. Paris: La Découverte-Les Empêcheurs de penser en rond. This text is not understandable without the pictures. It is provided simply to help those who have difficulty tracing the complete text on the web. -------------------- Paris, the City of Light, so open to the gaze of artists and tourists, so often photographed, the subject of so many glossy books, that we tend to forget the problems of thousands of engineers, technicians, civil servants, inhabitants and shopkeepers in making it visible. The aim of this sociological opera is to wander through the city, in texts and images, exploring some of the reasons why it cannot be captured at a glance. Our photographic exploration takes us first to places usually hidden from passers-by, in which the countless techniques making Parisians' lives possible are elaborated (water services, police force, ring road: various "oligopticons" from which the city is seen in its entirety). This helps us to grasp the importance of ordinary objects, starting with the street furniture constituting part of inhabitants' daily environment and enabling them to move about in the city without losing their way. It also makes us attentive to practical problems posed by the coexistence of such large numbers of people on such a small surface area.
    [Show full text]
  • Adorno's Dialectical Realism
    ADORNO’S DIALECTICAL REALISM Linda Martín Alcoff (Hunter College/CUNY Graduate Center) Alireza Shomali (Wheaton College, Massachusetts) The idea that Adorno should be read as a “realist” of any sort may in- deed sound odd. And unpacking from Adorno’s elusive prose a credible and useful normative reconstruction of epistemology and metaphysics will take some work. But we argue that he should be added to the grow- ing group of epistemologists and metaphysicians who have been devel- oping post-positivist versions of realism such as contextual, internal, pragmatic and critical realisms. These latter realisms, however, while helpfully showing how realism can coexist with ontological pluralism, for example, as well as a highly contextualised account of knowledge, have not developed a political reflexivity about how the object of knowledge—the real—is constructed. As a field, then, post-positivist realisms have been politically naïve, which is perhaps why they have not enjoyed more influence among Continental philosophers. Introduction Bruno Latour has recently called for a reconstructive moment in the cri- tiques of science and truth.1 Rather than repeatedly calling out the prob- lems with truth concepts, or critiquing the strategic context within which regimes of truth are produced, Latour argues that the discursive moment in which we find ourselves today requires an ability to make and defend truth claims. Surely he is right that much hangs in the balance concerning ongoing debates about issues such as global warming, the etiology of HIV/AIDS, the cause of the economic collapse, the nature of gender dif- ferences. Surely we can mark out better and worse candidates for truth in regard to these debates, even if capital “T” truth remains fallible.
    [Show full text]
  • Postcritical Theory? Demanding the Possible Jeff Rp Uchnic Wayne State University, [email protected]
    Criticism Volume 54 | Issue 4 Article 8 2012 Postcritical Theory? Demanding the Possible Jeff rP uchnic Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism Recommended Citation Pruchnic, Jeff (2012) "Postcritical Theory? Demanding the Possible," Criticism: Vol. 54: Iss. 4, Article 8. Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism/vol54/iss4/8 POSTCRITICAL “Post” indicates a very particular condition of afterness in which what Theory? is past is not left behind, but, on the DEMANDING THE contrary, relentlessly conditions, even POSSIBLE dominates, a present that neverthe- Jeff Pruchnic less also breaks in some way with this past. In other words, we use the term “post” only for a present whose past Walled States, Waning Sovereignty continues to capture and structure it. by Wendy Brown. New —Wendy Brown, York: Zone, 2010. Pp. 168, 10 Walled States (21) illustrations. $25.95 cloth. If learning to think is learning to Cosmopolitics I by Isabelle resist a future that presents itself as Stengers. Translated by Robert obvious, plausible, and normal, we Bononno. Posthumanities Series, cannot do so either by evoking an 9. Minneapolis: University of abstract future, from which every- Minnesota Press, 2010. Pp. 310. thing subject to our disapproval has $75.00 cloth; $25.00 paper. been swept aside, or by referring to a distant cause that we could and Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea should imagine to be free of any by Alberto Toscano. London: compromise. Verso, 2010. Pp. 304. $26.95 cloth. —Isabelle Stengers, Cosmopolitics I (10) Envisioning Real Utopias by Erik Olin Wright.
    [Show full text]
  • Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics
    Open Access Statement – Please Read This book is Open Access. This work is not simply an electronic book; it is the open access version of a work that exists in a number of forms, the traditional printed form being one of them. Copyright Notice This work is ‘Open Access’, published under a creative commons license which means that you are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work as long as you clearly attribute the work to the authors, that you do not use this work for any commercial gain in any form and that you in no way alter, transform or build on the work outside of its use in normal aca- demic scholarship without express permission of the author and the publisher of this volume. Furthermore, for any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. For more information see the details of the creative commons licence at this website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ This means that you can: • read and store this document free of charge • distribute it for personal use free of charge • print sections of the work for personal use • read or perform parts of the work in a context where no financial transactions take place However, you cannot: • gain financially from the work in anyway • sell the work or seek monies in relation to the distribution of the work • use the work in any commercial activity of any kind • profit a third party indirectly via use or distribution of the work • distribute in or through a commercial body (with the exception of academic usage within educational institutions such as schools and universities) • reproduce, distribute or store the cover image outside of its function as a cover of this work • alter or build on the work outside of normal academic scholarship Cover Art The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions and thus cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents.
    [Show full text]
  • Fragments of a Latourian Development Studies
    This is a pre-publication version of a paper that appears in Development & Change 45, 5 (September 2014): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dech.12117 Changes are possible; please refer to the version of record. Further information is available at http://kevinpdonovan.com/other-writing ‘Development’ as if We Have Never Been Modern: Fragments of a Latourian Development Studies Kevin P. Donovan ABSTRACT The work of the French anthropologist-cum-philosopher Bruno Latour has influenced a wide variety of disciplines in the past three decades. Yet, Latour has had little noticeable effect within development studies, including those subfields where it might be reasonable to expect affinity, such as the anthropology of development. The first half of this article outlines some core aspects of Latour’s oeuvre as they relate to development and anthropology, particularly focusing on the post-development critique. Latour’s approach to constructivism and translation, his analytical commitment to ‘keeping the social flat’ and his distribution of agency offer novel ways of maintaining some of the strengths of post-development without falling prey to some of its weaknesses. The second half of this article explores the potential for a Latour- inspired theory of development that may provide fruitful avenues for scholarship and practice beyond post-development, emphasizing materialism, relationality and hybridity. __________________________________________________________________ This paper began in the Ethnographic Problematiques seminar in UCT’s Social Anthropology programme, and I am grateful to the participants for their comments, particularly Francis Nyamnjoh. It also greatly benefited from comments and conversation with Bill Maurer and the astute comments of three anonymous reviewers.
    [Show full text]
  • Double Hermeneutics and Citation in Philosophy, Asphodel and Alan Rickman, Bruno Latour and the ‘Science Wars Babette Babich Fordham University, [email protected]
    Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Philosophy Collections Summer 2017 Are They Good? Are They Bad? Double Hermeneutics and Citation in Philosophy, Asphodel and Alan Rickman, Bruno Latour and the ‘Science Wars Babette Babich Fordham University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/phil_babich Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Epistemology Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, and the Philosophy of Science Commons Recommended Citation Babich, Babette, "Are They Good? Are They aB d? Double Hermeneutics and Citation in Philosophy, Asphodel and Alan Rickman, Bruno Latour and the ‘Science Wars" (2017). Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections. 78. https://fordham.bepress.com/phil_babich/78 This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Babette Babich Are They Good? Are They Bad? Double Hermeneutics and Citation in Philosophy, Asphodel and Alan Rickman, Bruno Latour and the ‘Science Wars’ 1. Redoubling Ginev’s Double Hermeneutics I have had the privilege of knowing Dimitri Ginev for several years. The late physicist and philosopher, Patrick Aidan Heelan was one of the first to tell me about the brilliance of Ginev’s work since their own encounter at the
    [Show full text]
  • Review Essays
    CAPITALISM NATURE SOCIALISM VOLUME 16 NUMBER 1(MARCH 2005) REVIEW ESSAYS Politics of Nature: A Review of Three Recent Works by Bruno Latour Bruno Latour: Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004a. Bruno Latour: “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern,” Critical Inquiry, 30, 2, 2004b. Bruno Latour: War of the Worlds: What About Peace? Chicago: Prickly Paradigm, 2002. Bruno Latour is widely known for his contributions to science studies,1 debates about postmodernism,2 and, through the spread of his “actor-network theory,”3 methods in the social sciences. While one can draw connections between these works, it is hard to pigeonhole Latour. His originality, style of argumentation, and aversion to being defined vis-a` -vis other thinkers make Latour enigmatic. More recently, Latour has called into question elements of his earlier project, arguing in his 2002 treatise, War of the Worlds: What About Peace?, that critique has “overshot its target” 4 and asking “why has critique run out of steam?” in a 2004 essay of the same name.5 That puts Latour, who urged us to follow scientists to understand social life, under the microscope himself. Latour’s Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences Into Democracy,6 (hereafter “Politics”) comes to the English-reading audience in the midst of the debate over Latour’s doubts about critique. This coincidence is auspicious, since it allows us to 1See especially Bruno Latour and S. Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts (Los Angeles: Sage, 1979); Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1987); and Latour, Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999a).
    [Show full text]
  • The Promises of Constructivism*
    The promises of constructivism* Bruno Latour Paper prepared for a chapter in Don Idhe (editor) Don Ihde (editor) Chasing Technology : Matrix of Materiality, Indiana Series for the Philosophy of Science, Indiana University Press, pp. 27-46 (2003) [German translation in Jorg Huber Interventionem, Zurich] “The experience also taught me a great lesson. I had not carefully designed an experiment that would prove diffusion; I had managed it by accident. That and all the other observations I had made told me that the slime molds were in charge, not I. They would let me know their secrets on their own terms, not mine.”, John Tyler Bonner, Lives of a biologist: Adventures in a century of extraordinary science, Harvard, 2002, p. 78 (quote kindly provided by I. Hacking). “If you want a thing to stand, it has to be able to fall” Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark, p. 342. For Albena Yaneva, architect-watcher What has gone so wrong? It first looked like a good idea: it was fun, it was original, it was enlightening to use the word ‘constructivism’ to designate the work I was doing on science and technology : laboratories indeed looked infinitely more interesting when described as so many construction sites than when portrayed as dark mastabas protecting mummified laws of nature. And the adjective ‘social’ seemed at first rather well chosen, since I and my colleagues were bathing the venerable work of science into a hot tub of culture and society that aimed at making them young and lively again. And yet everything has gone awry : I had to withdraw the word ‘social’ with shame —scrapping it in haste from the title of LABORATORY LIFE like faces of Trostky deleted from pictures of Red Square parades ; as for the word ‘constructivism’, it does not seem possible to salvage it from the furies triggered by the ‘science wars’ nor from the detritus left by the passage of ‘deconstruction’, this new Attila whose horse’s hoofs leaves no grass * English kindly corrected by Duana Fullwiley.
    [Show full text]
  • Bruno Latour's Anthropology of the Moderns
    response Bruno Latour’s anthropology of the moderns A reply to Maniglier Gunnar Skirbekk An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology humans have become more and more liberated from of the Moderns – published with the motto: si scires nature. (Yet, who says so today, in a time of climate donum Dei (for those who do not know the Holy change and ecological crises?) Throughout An Inquiry Scripture, this is John 4.10: ‘if you knew God’s gift’) – into Modes of Existence Latour persistently attacks is said to be the result of Bruno Latour’s research over these ‘Moderns’, claiming, for example, in typically the last twenty-five years.1 The book was presented dramatic terms: euphorically in three reviews in Le Monde, comparing it is truly a matter of wars, here – even of mas- Latour with the great philosophers of the past, and, sacres. The bonfires are still smoking with the most recently, in an article by Patrice Maniglier pub- witches burned alive at the time of the scientific lished in Radical Philosophy (‘A Metaphysical Turn?, revolution; the ashes are not yet cold after the Radical Philosophy 187, September/October 2014), auto-da-fés in which lay and religious missionaries which concludes that ‘Latour has produced what will alike piled up fetishes (and sometimes the fetish- henceforth stand as one of the great philosophical makers) every time they came in to ‘deliver the tribes from their superstitions’. (184) proposals of our time’. In what follows, I will present a rather different view. As this implies, one of the most immediately strik- The book, according to Latour, is a work of ing aspects of Latour’s book is the overwhelming anthropology, philosophical anthropology, empirical (and positive) role played within it by religion as a philosophy, and also an enquête, an investigation.
    [Show full text]