Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern

Abstract

This text is the translation of an article by Bruno Latour originally published in 2004, in which, in the face of the recent wave of mistrust of scientific facts, almost instant revisionism and conspiracy theories of all kinds, he defends the need for a redefinition of critical instruments in the field of science studies. Revisiting his previous analysis of the way in which much of the human sciences, inspired by social criticism, arbitrarily alternate between the fact and the fairy positions to explain their objects, sometimes considering human actions as determined by social or natural laws, sometimes giving all symbolic power to humans and declaring them fetishists, the author argues that it is necessary to replace matters of fact with matters of concern and return to what William James called a “stubbornly realistic attitude”: not to move away from facts, but to get even closer to them; not to deconstruct or to strip facts of their strength, but to add even more reality to them.