What Latour Means By "We Have Never Been Modern"
French social theorist Bruno Latour, pictured below, argues that despite the general understanding of sociologists and anthropologists that we are living in the "modern" or even "post-modern" era, we have actually never truly been modern.
What does "Modern" mean?
Latour describes the modern sensibility as developing in the 1700 and 1800s. Its core tenet is a clear distinction between Nature and Society. In modern thought, nature is considered objective, governed by laws discoverable through science, while society is shaped by subjective human actions, politics, and culture. The moderns believe these two domains—nature and society—must remain separate in order for knowledge to be pure and for progress to occur unimpeded.
So what’s the problem?
Latour argues that in practice, this separation has never truly existed. Technologies, scientific practices, and institutions are all “hybrids”—blends of natural phenomena and social constructs. A genetically modified organism, for example, is both a product of nature and deeply embedded in human intention, culture, economics, and ethics. Climate change, pandemics, and even digital technologies all expose how entangled the natural and social worlds really are.
Why "We Have Never Been Modern"
Because the distinction between Nature and Society has always been more of an ideal than a reality, Latour concludes that we were never actually modern—we just believed we were. What we need, he argues, is a new framework that doesn’t rely on this artificial divide. He calls this the “nonmodern” or “amodern” approach: one that recognizes and studies the networks of humans and nonhumans that shape our world together.
Why it matters
Latour’s argument has big implications for science, politics, and the way we understand power. If we admit that hybrids have always existed—climate policy shaped by science and ideology, or AI driven by data and human bias—then we can better respond to the challenges of the present. Rather than pretending science is neutral or society is separate from technology, we can start untangling the messy, interwoven world we actually live in.