Bruno Latour: From the Non-Modern to the Posthuman

Abstract

In We Have Never Been Modern (1991, 62), Bruno Latour announces that there ‘is only one positive thing to be said about the postmoderns: after them there is nothing. Far from being the last word, they mark the end of ends.’ Clearly, he does not embrace the nihilistic irony of some forms of postmodernity, but his relation to the posthuman is much more complex and nuanced. Latour’s ongoing critique of modernity, carried out through numerous empirical studies of scientific and technological practices as well as his investigation of the politics of nature (developed in a book of that title), is perhaps best articulated in We Have Never Been Modern and his recent An Inquiry into Modes of Existence. In the first he lays a clear foundation for his ‘non-modern constitution’ and the second creates a place for a positive posthumanist position. Although his work does not touch directly on film or television, Latour has long examined the visual arts and, through the figure of ‘The Theatre of Proof’, creates a powerful way to critique the production of objectivity in the sciences and in public discourse.