Critical Review of Latourian Ontological Politics

Abstract

In this article I study how to interpret and to feature what I call “ontological politics” within the works of philosopher Bruno Latour. In this sense, I make a reading of Latour’s production which stems from his own ontological proposals in order to clarify some questions concerning the extent of his political project. The couple of expressions “ontological politics” and “political ontology” are used to achieve this task. The former implies how to understand reality from an a-modern point of view. The latter refers to latourian genuine political project which is described by different Powers and Houses within the House of Things. I use a political question as a device to analyze Latour’s work who allows us to focus on exclusion of collectives and uncertainty that we have to face to construct our common world. Finally, against latourian proposal, I stress how technologies of humility are successful in addressing the previous features.