A scientist friend asked Bruno Latour point-blank: "Do you believe in reality?" Taken aback by this strange query, Latour offers his meticulous response in "Pandora's Hope," It is a remarkable argument for understanding the reality of science in practical terms. In this book Latour, identified by Richard Rorty as the new "bete noire of the science worshipers," gives us his most philosophically informed book since "Science in Action," Through case studies of scientists in the Amazon analyzing soil and in Pasteur's lab studying the fermentation of lactic acid, he shows us the myriad steps by which events in the material world are transformed into items of scientific knowledge. Through many examples in the world of technology, we see how the material and human worlds come together and are reciprocally transformed in this process. Why, Latour asks, did the idea of an independent reality, free of human interaction, emerge in the first place? His answer to this question, harking back to the debates between Might and Right narrated by Plato, points to the real stakes in the so-called science wars: the perplexed submission of ordinary people before the warring forces of claimants to the ultimate truth.

Bruno Latour was once asked him: "Do you believe in reality?" This text is an attempt to answer this question. Through case studies of scientists in the Amazon analyzing soil and in Pasteur's lab studying lactic acid, he shows the steps by which physical events become scientific knowlege.

2008-05-09 A book to think with

If you want answers this is the last Latour book you want - i would start with his ealrier works. To appreciate this book you really have to be prepared to think differently about all forms of knowledge practices and accept that scinces may not be a exacting as you would think.

Many might find his reviews of science disturbing - i found it refreshing forciong one to apprecaite that our human centre approach can easily become to complicated to actually say anything!