Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies

Latur's "Essays on Hope" should be dinner table talking material at every table. Most of humanity's frustrations vanish when people learn there is a real world around them. Oh the world is not perfect, but notions of perfection are man-made, and so are the frustrations. Reality can be improved; but not ridiculous delusions and nonsensical ideas. So, to make your life better, discover reality first. Then, explore the opportunities she offers. Don't sulk in delusional pity. Get an education in critical thinking, science, reality, and get a good job, make new acquaintances, and you will begin to improve your own reality. Forget the nonsense. Someday you'll laugh and wonder why you ever believed in nonsense.

Excellent copy, as described

Latour, in his discussion of science studies, seeks to demonstrate how the positivist paradigm constructs the methods and theories of Western science. Although somewhat hard to get through at times, his book will completely change the way you think about science and the human relationship to the world. Amazing book!

I am an Earth scientist and have been concerned with and involved in the making of science for more than 20 years. I was eager to read what this famous philosopher had to say about my business. I found this book interesting and insightful, and I found myself mostly agreeing with the author's viewpoint on what science is and what it means. Nevertheless, I found the book unnecessarily dense and the style too adorned for my taste. I am left with the feeling that the same could have been said in one third of the length without detriment of the meaning but with a definite gain in understanding. Henri Poincaré and Carl Sagan wrote deep thoughts in simple words without loss of dignity, using a language that every educated person could understand. Scientists are encouraged all the time to write clearly and concisely. Why can't this author? I recall Strunk's timeless dictum in his book "The elements of style": "omit needless words". Are philosophers not aware of this common sense rule?

You have to admire Bruno Latour's persistence in the face of often vicious misunderstanding of what he's about. In many ways the core insights he has brought to the study of science have been available to readers for almost 20 years, yet it is still necessary for him to constantly reframe arguments to try and get the points across. This book shows once again the profound seriousness of his philosophical approach, based in the work of Serres, Deleuze and Whitehead amongst many others, and yet it seems inevitable that its lucid style and empirical foundation will find 'academic' philosophers once again all at sea (and substituting the usual bile for genuine understanding). This is Latour at his most sober, pleading for common sense in an area that is surely the intellectual world's biggest reservoir of wishful mysticism - the relationship between representation and reality. It's not just philosophers who find this banal question interesting, but also scientists, who increasingly adopt the same impoverished schema as those in science studies have developed over the years to judge (not understand) what scientists do. This is one of the great strengths of Latour's book and overall approach, how he respects the work and procedures of both sides, using neither to be reductionist about the other. What emerges is a science fully implicated in the 'social' world, and a social world just as implicated in the world of facts and theories - no puritanical separation, but also not a simple reflection of one in the other either. It will confuse and anger philosophers and scientists alike, but only to the extent that they have disciplinary empires to protect - Latour is interested in the world, and not constant petty claims about who understands it best.

In Pandora's Hope, Bruno Latour is resolute in his efforts to [1] understand the mire philosophers of language have found themselves in, and [2] move on past those chimeras of epistemological impossibilities toward a richer understanding of things by scrutinizing the very practice of science and shaking loose the foundations presupposed by realist and social constructivist frameworks. This review, I will admit, is overly preoccupied by Latour's handling of "language," but Pandora's Hope covers quite well a much broader breadth of philosophical inquiry than my particular esoteric interest lets on. But since that is where my particular interests lie, let it be said that at least as an extremely strong subtext, Latour, through an exploration of the reality of science studies, relentlessly pursues the concocted philosophic divide between the world and words, and attempts to set us afoot on a more fruitful conceptual path from the dead-end correspondence theory and the resulting materialist/relativist dichotomy. If all this sounds far too heady, blame me, not Latour: for his ability to summarize in an attempt to overcome the various sprawling philosophical puzzles, his writings have a refreshing narrative flow, subtle wit, and an underlying humility that is encouraging rather than intimidating for the reader. It's not "lite" reading, but for those up for the challenge, it will be a rewarding task.

An essential read for anyone who has followed the battles of "science studies." It is a pleasure to FINALLY see someone (Latour, no less) lay down their semantic weapons and attempt to write an honest essay (no sarcasm, word play, or back stab). Latour has long been at the forefront of science studies (and argument). But here we begin to see the emergence of a mature position, one that isn't afraid to look in the mirror or ask tough questions. The intro historical account won't win him any friends in philosophy departments, but that's not his audience this time around. Here we have good science written in an honest, practical, no-nonsense style. The fear and uncertainty of science studies being a "new" or (worse) "post" discipline has faded away. Now, the real work begins. And here is where we're lucky because bruno latour turns out to be a pretty good guide and everyone's ally.