Erik Buckingham approximately 150 words
10 MacVittie Circle
Geneseo, New York 14454
“We Have Never Been Modern” Response
By: Erik Buckingham
In the New York Times, a few pages about biological and chemical advancement are listed under “science times” while political articles are seen throughout the whole newspaper. Author Bruno Latour’s views on modernisms stem from this separation of politics and nature.
In “We Have Never Been Modern”, Latour states that, “the analysts, thinkers, journalists, and decision makers will slice the delicate network… into tiny compartments where you will find only science, only economy, only social phenomena, only local news…”Latour believes that the more separate we keep our research in social and natural science, the more we will discover reasons to combine the two. He states, “the more we forbid ourselves to conceive of hybrids, the more possible their interbreeding becomes.”
The Suess Spruce is a tree that stands for perseverance, intertwining it with biology and society. This is a paradox because we are at a college that separates biology and sociology into two separate departments.
You did a great job summarizing Latour’s argument for the practice of translation. Don’t forget about his practice of purification though. It sounds like you may be able to use the idea of the separation of human and nonhuman to discuss the Seuss Spruce.