Bruno Latour We Have Never Been Modern Harvard University Press

Jun 23, 2026

We Have Never Been Modern presents a critique of “modernity” as a self-justifying way of thinking about society, knowledge, and progress. By examining how categories such as nature/culture and subject/object are used to separate realities, the work argues that moderns have not actually achieved the distance they claim. The book reframes public debates and scientific practices as hybrid, continuously remade networks rather than clean divisions enforced by modern ideology.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages165

Reading Time4 h 14 min

Key Ideas

Critique of Modernity

Nature/Culture Separation

Hybrids and Networks

FAQs

What central idea drives We Have Never Been Modern?

The book challenges the notion that “modernity” marks a decisive break from earlier ways of organizing knowledge and society.

How does the work treat the nature–culture divide?

It argues that this separation is more ideological than real, used to sustain a modern story of purity and distance.

What alternative does the book propose for understanding science and society?

It frames them as intertwined, hybrid networks that continually reorganize rather than as separate domains governed by modern boundaries.

Jun 23, 2026

Upload by Emma Wilson