Bruno Latour 1947-2022
October 9, 2022 10:58 AM Subscribe
Philosopher of Science and co-developer of Actor Network Theory Bruno Latour has died at the age of 75.
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posted by snuffleupagus at 12:44 PM on October 9, 2022
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:44 PM on October 9, 2022
I worked closely with him for two years, researching for the Critical Zones exhibition 2020 at the ZKM. He was also my mentor for my postgraduate artistic research project. I remember him as an incredibly kind and patient person, he took time to listen and speak with everyone, and would try and help everyone grow. Sure, he was a great thinker, but it was his near-childlike excitement and openness towards the world that influenced me most.
We agreed to meet again at his estate in France, for a photo session of him at a place where he goes to think and be alone with himself. Due to the pandemic, that never happened. I miss you, Bruno.
posted by javanlight at 12:53 PM on October 9, 2022 [44 favorites]
We agreed to meet again at his estate in France, for a photo session of him at a place where he goes to think and be alone with himself. Due to the pandemic, that never happened. I miss you, Bruno.
posted by javanlight at 12:53 PM on October 9, 2022 [44 favorites]
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I recall reading his work on science in the 1990s and having more or less Sokal's response, as described in the article. The sophists at my university jumped on with delight to draw the conclusion that objective reality doesn't exist, because what is recognized as real emerges as a social negotiation. The inference was utter nonsense, because the latter may be true without the former holding -- and I don't think the former was Latour's bottom line in any case. (I'd have to go re-read his book.) But still those arguments were formative and thought-provoking.
Respect for the man.
posted by brambleboy at 1:56 PM on October 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
I recall reading his work on science in the 1990s and having more or less Sokal's response, as described in the article. The sophists at my university jumped on with delight to draw the conclusion that objective reality doesn't exist, because what is recognized as real emerges as a social negotiation. The inference was utter nonsense, because the latter may be true without the former holding -- and I don't think the former was Latour's bottom line in any case. (I'd have to go re-read his book.) But still those arguments were formative and thought-provoking.
Respect for the man.
posted by brambleboy at 1:56 PM on October 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
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Hard to overstate how influential he has been on me.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 3:28 PM on October 9, 2022 [16 favorites]
Hard to overstate how influential he has been on me.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 3:28 PM on October 9, 2022 [16 favorites]
e-posthumous-erical?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:37 PM on October 9, 2022
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:37 PM on October 9, 2022
I met him in 2016, very briefly, when I was working on a conference at which he was a keynote speaker. It wasn't much more than a 'hello' kind of thing, but the keynote he gave was exciting, broad ranging , witty, and absolutely brilliant, and I still consider it a highlight of my academic life. It also demolishes quite clearly the Sokal-aligned notion that Latour was appropriating scientific language: Latour was first and foremost a philosopher, engaged in the thinking around humanity's engagement with science. To function, his thinking had to address science, to consider the problem of science, and to explore it as a humanist.
To leap on the 'objective reality' thing, we have to address - as Latour, Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard and others did - whose objectivity. I - from my position in the world, inhabiting this body in this space at this time - cannot ever expect to experience or perceive the world in the precise manner that another human (let alone another sentient being) does. The idea of an observable universe is therefore unstable! My father is colour-blind. For most of his life, he has believed that peanut butter is green. In the 'observable universe' paradigm, he can claim to be absolutely correct: he cannot experience the universe in any other way. In the 'objective reality' paradigm, we can simply say that this person - for all that he trained as an engineer, computer scientist, and historian of science (in which he got a PhD) - is wrong.
But why?
Forgive me, I'm going to get Foucauldian rather than Latourist: whose objectivity has primacy here? We can say that 'green' and 'brown' are not useful concepts, but rather the combination of materials reflecting certain wavelengths of light that can be measured by scientific instrumentation can describe our universe. Ok, sure - but how are the wavelengths of light determined? Yes, they have a certain periodicity - cycles per second - or measurable length between 'peaks' of the wave, but how was the 'second' determined? What is a 'nanometer' and why is it important to use this division of the 'meter' (developed as a political tool, no less!) to determine the speed at which light moves in this 'second'? How do we measure the reflective material, its density, mass, etc? Even if the universe is not anthropocentric, we occupy - perhaps even colonise - it in anthropocentric ways.
These are the kind of questions that Bruno Latour was asking, and they're fundamental to our life here on Earth and in the universe we may yet explore one day. I thank him deeply for prompting me to think this way.
posted by prismatic7 at 5:57 PM on October 9, 2022 [14 favorites]
To leap on the 'objective reality' thing, we have to address - as Latour, Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard and others did - whose objectivity. I - from my position in the world, inhabiting this body in this space at this time - cannot ever expect to experience or perceive the world in the precise manner that another human (let alone another sentient being) does. The idea of an observable universe is therefore unstable! My father is colour-blind. For most of his life, he has believed that peanut butter is green. In the 'observable universe' paradigm, he can claim to be absolutely correct: he cannot experience the universe in any other way. In the 'objective reality' paradigm, we can simply say that this person - for all that he trained as an engineer, computer scientist, and historian of science (in which he got a PhD) - is wrong.
But why?
Forgive me, I'm going to get Foucauldian rather than Latourist: whose objectivity has primacy here? We can say that 'green' and 'brown' are not useful concepts, but rather the combination of materials reflecting certain wavelengths of light that can be measured by scientific instrumentation can describe our universe. Ok, sure - but how are the wavelengths of light determined? Yes, they have a certain periodicity - cycles per second - or measurable length between 'peaks' of the wave, but how was the 'second' determined? What is a 'nanometer' and why is it important to use this division of the 'meter' (developed as a political tool, no less!) to determine the speed at which light moves in this 'second'? How do we measure the reflective material, its density, mass, etc? Even if the universe is not anthropocentric, we occupy - perhaps even colonise - it in anthropocentric ways.
These are the kind of questions that Bruno Latour was asking, and they're fundamental to our life here on Earth and in the universe we may yet explore one day. I thank him deeply for prompting me to think this way.
posted by prismatic7 at 5:57 PM on October 9, 2022 [14 favorites]
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A huge inspiration and influence. I've translated a couple of his papers, and wrote the afterword for the Estonian translation of We Have Never Been Modern. Gotta translate another one now, as a tribute.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 9:50 PM on October 9, 2022 [8 favorites]
A huge inspiration and influence. I've translated a couple of his papers, and wrote the afterword for the Estonian translation of We Have Never Been Modern. Gotta translate another one now, as a tribute.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 9:50 PM on October 9, 2022 [8 favorites]
> e-posthumous-erical?
No, sorry. I am not ready to make jokes about it; I am eponymissing my favorite theorist really hard right now.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 10:14 PM on October 9, 2022 [8 favorites]
No, sorry. I am not ready to make jokes about it; I am eponymissing my favorite theorist really hard right now.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 10:14 PM on October 9, 2022 [8 favorites]
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posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:23 AM on October 10, 2022
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:23 AM on October 10, 2022
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He was such an original thinker. The near child-like excitement described by javanlight comes clearly through in his writings, and I had really hope to meet him one day. Thanks for sharing your memories, those of you who were so lucky.
posted by mumimor at 5:12 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
He was such an original thinker. The near child-like excitement described by javanlight comes clearly through in his writings, and I had really hope to meet him one day. Thanks for sharing your memories, those of you who were so lucky.
posted by mumimor at 5:12 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
[My apologies, BrunoLatourFanclub, which I hope you can accept. If the mods would like to remove my comment, that would be just fine.]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:34 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:34 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's a bit unfortunate that outside of academia Latour is still often associated with the so-called "Science Wars" of the 1990s, with the Sokal affair and so on, which everybody who was involved in it or has had an interest in it today agrees was a complete waste of everyone's time. Unfortunately its legacy lives on, with people still believing there are some sort of "relativists" and "postmodernists" and "social constructionists" running around everywhere, who apparently think there is no truth, every opinion is as good as any other, and science is made up. There has never been anyone who thinks that. The Science Wars were basically a forerunner, although mostly without that much reactionary politics (as far as I can tell), of the CRT hysteria and "postmodern neomarxism" and lefty academics out to destroy Western civilization, shit like that.
But, hey, progress! At least The Guardian now describes his "most controversial idea" (it wasn't) as "Louis Pasteur did not just discover microbes, but collaborated with them", rather than "Latour thinks Pasteur invented microbes" like it used to be described.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 7:22 AM on October 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
But, hey, progress! At least The Guardian now describes his "most controversial idea" (it wasn't) as "Louis Pasteur did not just discover microbes, but collaborated with them", rather than "Latour thinks Pasteur invented microbes" like it used to be described.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 7:22 AM on October 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
Well drat. His work was an inspiration for me, although I didn't end up pursuing that path.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:40 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by aspersioncast at 10:40 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Who else could write a book like Aramis? He was incomparable in his field.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:30 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:30 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
His work was a cornerstone of how I understand the world. I hope it continues to influence more thinkers, especially scientists who can all benefit from a little uncertainty.
posted by Freyja at 6:11 AM on October 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Freyja at 6:11 AM on October 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
What an astonishing and delightful thinker. I never met the man, alas, but have always enjoyed and benefitted from his writing.
His thoughts on COVID are very useful.
posted by doctornemo at 7:12 AM on October 11, 2022
His thoughts on COVID are very useful.
posted by doctornemo at 7:12 AM on October 11, 2022
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a true giant in his field
posted by dis_integration at 11:30 AM on October 9, 2022