Logan Steffens Approx. 150 words
lts6@geneseo.edu
In “ We Have Never been Modern by Bruno Latour, he describes a world in which man and nature are two entirely separate things while in reality we are one in the same. Similar to a newspaper with its many articles about similar topics us humans are one topic in the large umbrella that is all of nature. Latour suggests that we have two goals as a society, purification that is keeping humans separate from nature and translation, which is creating labels for everything around us. The rock outside of Suffolk hall can be viewed as part of nature or as part of human civilization when in reality it is both. However, few people think this way because we are so modern and do not understand that humans are part of nature similar to everything around us.
Referring to us as a smaller part of the whole is a fascinating approach, but I’d be interested to see if the author agrees that we are only a subtopic, since he seems to pretty adamantly believe that to be a modern species/civilization, we should know the boundary between human and nonhuman.
Do you agree with Latour?