Sarah Lambert                                                                                 about 180 words

sel15@geneseo.edu

Student, INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing

“We Have Never Been Modern” Response

By Sarah Lambert

   Since it’s birth, society has found thousands of ways to classify and separate aspects of itself. Latour relies on the example of a newspaper in the beginning of his essay to exemplify this; how it’s easy to see categories like science, religion, fiction, etc. Latour’s argument relies on how this attitude of segregation in society is inaccurate and the paths of these elements do in fact cross, creating “hybrid networks.”

  As time does to many other words, the definition of modern has been altered under many different connotations. Latour believes that we are not able to define ourselves as modern until we define the word itself in which case we may need to adjust our attitudes and beliefs.  He emphasizes his argument about modernity when he writes, “If the modern world in its turn is becoming susceptible to anthropological treatment, this is because something has happened to it.”

   As his argument forces the audience to rethink the definition of “modern,” Latour’s piece seems quite effective in supporting my ideas about the minimal barriers that remain between man and nature.