Rachael Natoli Approximately 200 words
rln5@geneseo.edu
INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing
In We Have Never Been Modern by Bruno Latour he addressing the dualism between natural science and society. He begins the chapter by discussing the contents of a newspaper. There are many topics included in a single page of a newspaper that have a union between the natural world and societal issues.
“The ozone hole is too social and too narrated to be truly natural…,” which is why it shows that the dualism between the social and the natural is an illusion created by the modern world. To describe the effect the ozone has on our world in an article or essay, societal problems and scientific information must be combined. Latour describes the ideas of critics who say a scientist can not include societal discourse in their academic work as societal issues are not in their field of expertise.
His ideas about the false dichotomy of nature and society connect to the farm land that you can see when looking out from the gazebo into the valley. Farming has been a topic of societal discussion recently due to the animal cruelty by large corporate farms and it is also a part of the natural sciences because it involves the health of plants and animals.
I really enjoyed your interpretation of Latour’s piece and the way you related it to recent events surrounding your object. I feel like you could have stated something about why the dichotomy stops us from being modern, but your summary ands its relation to your object is sophisticated and detailed.