dpa
Paris
French philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour has died at the age of 75, his publisher Les Éditions La Découverte has said.
Latour, who was considered one of France’s greatest contemporary intellectuals, died in Paris in the early hours of Sunday, the publishing house told dpa.
Seen as one of the great innovators of the social sciences, he was a professor at the renowned Sciences Po University in Paris and his works have been translated in more than 20 languages.
Born 1947 in the central town of Beaune, Latour focused on scientific work and how certainties are formed in society. In the 1990s, this made him a target in the so-called Science Wars, with natural scientists feeling it was an attack on their claim to objective knowledge that sociologists like Latour were exploring their mechanisms of truth production.
Latour, for his part, argued that he was only describing the ability of scientific networks to produce objectivity.
He called himself an “empirical philosopher” as his concepts were based on the results of field studies he conducted in courts or laboratories.
Besides his many publications like “We Have Never Been Modern,” Latour may be best known for his work as one the first developers of actor-network theory, which goes beyond the idea of social construction of reality.
According to the concept, nature and society ascribe properties to each other amid constantly changing relations. This led Latour to the idea of a “parliament of things” in which non-human actors should also have a say.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the philosopher, hailing him as a humanist and pluralist spirit.
“His reflections and his writings will continue to inspire us to new relationships with the world,” Macron wrote on Twitter.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne also paid her respects, saying Latour left behind works that will continue to stimulate consciousness in the future.
