We Have Never Been Modern

"We Have Never Been Modern" by Bruno Latour is a brilliant interdisciplinary work that profoundly challenges our assumptions about the world we live in. Mr. Latour views the Enlightenment from an anthropological perspective to reveal how its multiple and contradictory ideals have conspired to lead humanity towards ever greater social and environmental crises. Mr. Latour's breakthrough analysis provides a philosophical road map towards a sustainable 'nonmodern' world wherein nature and society are more harmoniously joined together for the greater good.Mr. Latour traces our modern confusion to a series of debates between Thomas Hobbes and Robert Boyle in the seventeenth century which led to divergences in the study of nature or ideologies on the one hand and science or facts on the other; modernity became defined by the knowing of what was previously unknown. Mr. Latour contends that the 'purification' or incontestability of scientific facts and ideologies has failed to account for the 'hybrid' ways in which society and nature actually respond to change. Indeed, the interjection of science into the real world has created a multiplicity of what Mr. Latour calls 'quasi-objects', or phenomena that are located in the midpoint between science and nature; examples of quasi-objects include global warming, genetic engineering, the AIDS epidemic, and so on. Mr. Latour believes that we are ill-equipped to address these problems inasmuch as the institutions built around Enlightenment ideals have failed to account for the nonseparation of social practices from nature.In this light, Mr. Latour rejects the idea that humanity has ever really broken away from its premodern past. To begin with, Mr. Latour suggests that the premoderns' assignment of transcendence to inanimate objects is similar in kind to the transcendent powers assigned by moderns to sciences and ideologies. Mr. Latour goes on to contend that the modern experience is simply larger in scale than the premodern, with ever-more sophisticated but conflicting explanations about the meaning of the extended networks that bind our lived experiences undergoing constant flux. Mr. Latour states that 'morphism' better explains the nonmodern world we inhabit in which humans must continuously adapt themselves to changing sociological and natural conditions.Mr. Latour argues that once we refute the idea that we have ever been modern, we can reclaim our sense of being ordinary and thereby express our solidarity with all peoples and the planet; at that point, we will be able to focus on the collective challenge of addressing the critical problems that confront us. Crucially, this task requires that our conception of politics enlarges; the discourse must encompass the multitude of human and non-human subjects or 'things' alike if we wish to solve the problems that the quasi-objects present to us. For example, Mr. Latour suggests that in the case of ozone depletion such a debate might be enjoined by representatives speaking on behalf of chemical companies, workers, the ozone hole itself, Antarctica, and so on.Originally written in 1991, Mr. Latour's pathbreaking thought has proven to be highly influential, with many of his arguments in essence being echoed and enlarged by more and more similarly-minded progressive writers. To cite just a few: Robyn Eckersley's  The Green State: Rethinking Democracy and Sovereignty  articulates the juridical basis for the representation of non-human life forms in our democracy; Vandana Shiva's  Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace  provides a moral argument for human rights and environmentally justice; and Steven Wise'  Drawing the Line  makes a compelling case for animal rights. Together, works such as these suggest that a new kind of Enlightenment may be forming: a philosophy that recognizes the future of humanity is dependent upon, and not estranged from, the other life forms that coexist with us on planet earth.This challenging but deeply rewarding book is highly recommended for all philosophically-minded and hopeful readers.

Apparently, we have never been modern ... but how we're different from Middle Ages European society, or anything else for that matter, is unclear. Latour never offers alternative categories. It feels more like he goes back and forth on the matter: we're somewhat modern, we think we're modern, we're not modern, but we act modern ... I don't even know how to put it. His writing is very convoluted and he waffles between arguments, even while there are very interesting ideas throughout the book about nature and objects and the relationship between people, nature-objects, etc. The book starts out feeling a little indulgent in that it feels like a personal reaction to Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, with Latour setting off to contradict their very useful analysis of the production of knowledge in the debates between Hobbes and Boyle. After spending two or three chapters responding to LEVIATHAN AND THE AIR-PUMP, he goes on to analyze other topics but they are increasingly more confusing and ungrounded. He includes diagrams intended to enlighten readers, but sometimes they are enlightening on their own, other times just as confusing especially in the context in which they are included. I wondered if it was instead worth 2 stars, but this book is a bit of a classic of sorts, and Latour's work is valued very much in the social sciences, but I prefer reading his book with Woolgar than this small but confusing text.

The author explicated why ultimately we are who we are, and why we never were what would be colloquially callled “modern” in such clear prose, that I wish I would have read his books sooner.

Unfortunately I have not finished the book yet due to time constraints, but I have completed the first few chapters. It is a complicated book that requires attention to detail and some discussion. I am a atmospheric scientists so the type of writing found is this book is new to me and required 100% concentration. Discussing the book with a group was essential for clarifying some points the author had. I don't feel knowledgeable enough in this field to comment on the validity of the paper, I'll leave that to the professionals.

A book stunning in its analytical reach, We Have Never Been Modern shows the futility/centrality of Nature/Culture debates. On the one hand, modernity signifies the need to purify nature from culture. On the other hand, Latour shows us the ways in which we have never been modern. Particularly important are the tools he provides for thinking about science anthropologically: his critique of objectivity, his fascination with things because they elude the neat binary between nature and culture, and his understanding of how deconstruction ironically maintains this purity between nature and culture because it understands language as cut off from both looking subjects and objects of analysis. I would rate this book as one of the top 50 books of cultural analysis.

Latour is one of the foundational thinkers of our times. Anyone who wishes to peer beneath the platitudes of the every day, anyone who questions, needs to read Labour.

An interesting book, well written, interesting cover. Would read again.

Innovative, mind-blowing. Strongly suggested.

I purchased this book as a course book for one of my graduate level courses. It was invaluable for said course. That said, it wasn't really the kind of book I would read for pleasure. An essential gook for the genre, it seems like a good text to read if you're operating in the humanities (or even in the sciences) when it comes to thought and discourse.

All good