In the context of the question of the extent to which science studies is able to mount an adequate critique of contemporary developments in science and technology, and in view of the proliferating interest in ethics across the social sciences, this article has two aims. Firstly to address some of the implications for ethics of Bruno Latour's, and to a lesser extent Alfred North Whitehead's, conceptions of reality, both of which have a bearing on the long-standing dichotomy between facts and values. Drawing on Whitehead's work, it also, secondly, seeks to make a positive argument for ethics and to ask again, in the light of this discussion, where the ethical dimensions of Latour's work might be located. Towards the end of the article, I suggest that Latour's concept of exteriority obliges him to pursue a politics of reality which is the special providence of `moralists', rather than a politics of virtual reality in which all entities, human and non-human, are engaged.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Kincaid, Harold;
Dupré, John;
Wylie, Alison;
(2007)
Value-Free Science? Ideals and Illusions
(/isis/citation/CBB000772377/)
Chapter
Gerhardt, Uta;
(2006)
Zäsuren und Zeitperspektiven. Überlegungen zu “Wertfreiheit” und “Objektivität” als Problemen der Wissenschaftsgeschichte
(/isis/citation/CBB000953811/)
Article
Schmidgen, Henning;
(2013)
The Materiality of Things? Bruno Latour, Charles Péguy and the History of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001252829/)
Article
Hegarty, Peter;
(2007)
Getting Dirty: Psychology's History of Power
(/isis/citation/CBB000700404/)
Article
Riis, Søren;
(2008)
The Symmetry between Bruno Latour and Martin Heidegger: The Technique of Turning a Police Officer into a Speed Bump
(/isis/citation/CBB000953491/)
Article
Tucker, Aviezer;
(2007)
The Political Theory of French Science Studies in Context
(/isis/citation/CBB000720295/)
Article
Vries, Gerard de;
(2007)
What is Political in Sub-politics? How Aristotle Might Help STS
(/isis/citation/CBB000773321/)
Article
García Díaz, Paloma;
(2008)
Los límites del principio de indeterminación radical en Latour y el giro político de su filosofía de la ciencia
(/isis/citation/CBB000933628/)
Article
Lynch, Michael;
(2012)
Self-Exemplifying Revolutions? Notes on Kuhn and Latour
(/isis/citation/CBB001250754/)
Article
Giere, Ronald N.;
Moffatt, Barton;
(2003)
Distributed Cognition: Where the Cognitive and the Social Merge
(/isis/citation/CBB000651032/)
Article
Mialet, Hélène;
(2012)
Where Would STS Be without Latour? What Would Be Missing?
(/isis/citation/CBB001250755/)
Article
Jasanoff, Sheila;
(2012)
Genealogies of STS
(/isis/citation/CBB001250752/)
Article
Sismondo, Sergio;
(2012)
Fifty Years of the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Twenty-Five of Science in Action
(/isis/citation/CBB001250748/)
Article
Luckhurst, Roger;
(2006)
Bruno Latour's Scientifiction: Networks, Assemblages, and Tangled Objects
(/isis/citation/CBB001030928/)
Article
Roelcke, Volker;
(2010)
Auf der Suche nach der Politik in der Wissensproduktion: Plädoyer für eine historischpolitische Epistemologie
(/isis/citation/CBB001021200/)
Article
Kochan, Jeff;
(2010)
Latour's Heidegger
(/isis/citation/CBB001034686/)
Article
Fuller, Steve;
(2012)
CSI: Kuhn and Latour
(/isis/citation/CBB001250751/)
Article
Sayes, Edwin;
(2014)
Actor--Network Theory and Methodology: Just What Does It Mean to Say That Nonhumans Have Agency?
(/isis/citation/CBB001421170/)
Book
Gane, Nicholas;
(2004)
The Future of Social Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB000640739/)
Article
Latour, Bruno;
(2007)
Turning around Politics: A Note on Gerard de Vries' Paper
(/isis/citation/CBB000773322/)
Be the first to comment!