Monday, November 26, 2012

Nature and Society and Truth, Oh my!

Because I've decided to focus on the idea of truth for my final paper, I'm always looking for what people believe is true or their idea of knowledge and how to obtain it. We've come a long way from Plato believing there is only one truth, to the more modern view of truth changing depending on the situation, so I was trying to be extra aware of what Latour had to say about truth, if anything at all.

On page 95, there is a section of diagrams that explain the principle of symmetry, which is what Latour says "reestablished continuity, historicity, and...elementary justice (93). To me, this concept is a little confusing, so I didn't quite understand all the parts that make up the principle of symmetry. With the generalized principle of symmetry, it appears to us that nature and society will both be explained using quasi-objects. If we go by the diagram, this looks the most appealing by an organizational standpoint, but, if I'm reading it properly, Latour tells us that this is wrong as well.  He states very plainly that there is no symmetry between nature and society, "it does not exist" (96). I felt a little cheated that he spent such a long time trying to explain something that he ultimately doesn't believe exists.

I don't think this means that Latour doesn't believe there is truth in nature or society, I just think it means he doesn't know where to find that truth. He isn't sure how to explain one with the other, so he suggests there is no way to do such a thing.

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