We Have Never Been Modern

With the rise of science, we moderns believe, the world changed irrevocably, separating us forever from our primitive, premodern ancestors.But if we were to let go of this fond conviction, Bruno Latour asks, what would the world look like?His book, an anthropology of science, shows us how much of modernity is actually a matter of faith. What does it mean to be modern? What difference does the scientific method make? The difference, Latour explains, is in our careful distinctions between nature and society, between human and thing, distinctions that our benighted ancestors, in their world of alchemy, astrology, and phrenology, never made.But alongside this purifying practice that defines modernity, there exists another seemingly contrary one: the construction of systems that mix politics, science, technology, and nature.The ozone debate is such a hybrid, in Latour’s analysis, as are global warming, deforestation, even the idea of black holes.As these hybrids proliferate, the prospect of