We Have Never Been Modern: Difference between revisions

'''''We Have Never Been Modern''''' is a 1991 book by [[Bruno Latour]], originally published in French as'' Nous n'avons jamais été modernes: Essais d'anthropologie symmétrique'' (English translation: 1993)<ref>{{Cite book

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The book is an "anthropology of science" that explores the [[dualistic]] distinction [[modernity]] makes between [[nature]] and [[society]]. [[Pre-modern]] peoples, argues Latour, made no such division. Contemporary matters of public concern such as [[global warming]], the [[HIV/AIDS pandemic]] and emerging [[biotechnologies]] mix politics, science, popular and specialist discourse to such a degree that a tidy nature/culture dualism is no longer possible. This inconsistency has given rise to [[post-modern]] and [[Anarcho-primitivism|anti-modern]] movements<!--NOTE: the link to "Anarcho-primitivism" is only a rough and far from ideal fit to Latour's conception of "anti-modernism". Insert a better one if you can-->. Latour attempts to reconnect the social and natural worlds by arguing that the modernist distinction between nature and culture never existed. He claims we must rework our thinking to conceive of a "Parliament of Things" wherein [[natural phenomena]], [[social phenomena]] and the [[discourse]] about them are not seen as separate objects to be studied by [[experts|specialist]]s, but as [[hybrids]] made and scrutinized by the public interaction of people, things and concepts<ref>{{Cite book

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