Bruno Latour on the Anthropocene

The aim of this communication is to offer a detailed examination of Bruno Latours views on the
concept of the Anthropocene. For Bruno Latour, the Anthropocene gives another definition of time,
()redescribes what it is to stand in space, and it reshuffles what it means to be entangled within
animated agencies. We will try to show that for the well known philosopher of science and
technology the definition of the concept of the Anthropocene is the occasion to rethink disciplinary
boundaries between the natural and the social sciences, to change the ways in which we understand
human and non-human agency, to abandon naturalism and to give up worn-out conceptions of
sovereignty. According to Latour, the Anthropocene is the name of a challenge that enables us to
finally overcome a certain idea of Modernity and an opportunity to think in new and unprecedented
ways. By turning our attention to the hallmarks of his intellectual trajectory, namely, but not only,
We have never been modern, we will argue that we find in Latours thought important and much
needed tools to deal with the urgent problems of this new geological age.

Nuno Carvalho
Post-doc
Center of Philosophy of Science of the University of Lisbon