Pandora's Hope

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 Pandoräs 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 bête 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 Pasteurs 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...

The cheapest new copy of Pandora's Hope is £30.95 at Waterstones. Prices checked 10 Nov 2026

More by Bruno Latour

More by Bruno Latour