Prince of Networks is the first treatment of Bruno Latour
specifically as a philosopher. It has been eagerly awaited by
readers of both Latour and Harman since their public discussion at
the London School of Economics in February 2008. Part One covers
four key works that display Latour s underrated contributions to
metaphysics: Irreductions, Science in Action, We Have Never Been
Modern, and Pandora s Hope. Harman contends that Latour is one of
the central figures of contemporary philosophy, with a highly
original ontology centered in four key concepts: actants,
irreduction, translation, and alliance. In Part Two, Harman
summarizes Latour s most important philosophical insights,
including his status as the first secular occasionalist. The
problem of translation between entities is no longer solved by the
fiat of God (Malebranche) or habit (Hume), but by local mediators.
Working from his own object-oriented perspective, Harman also
criticizes the Latourian focus on the relational character of
actors at the expense of their cryptic autonomous reality. This
book forms a remarkable interface between Latour s Actor-Network
Theory and the Speculative Realism of Harman and his confederates.
It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the emergence of
new trends in the humanities following the long postmodernist
interval. 'Graham Harman does for Bruno Latour what Deleuze did for
Foucault. Rather than a recounting of Latour s impressive
sociological analyses, Harman approaches Latour as a philosopher,
offering a new realist object-oriented metaphysic capable of
sustaining contemporary thought well into the next century. What
ensues is a lively and productive debate between rival, yet
sympathetic, orientations of object-oriented philosophy between two
of our most highly original, daring, and creative philosophers,
giving us a text destined to have a major impact on contemporary
philosophical thought and providing exciting avenues beyond
reigning deadlocks that haunt philosophy today.' Professor Levi R.
Bryant (Collin College), author of Difference and Givenness:
Deleuze's Transcendental Empiricism and the Ontology of Immanence.
'Graham Harman s book Prince of Networks is a wonderfully eloquent
exposition of the metaphysical foundations of Latour s work. This
is not an introduction to Latour. It is rather a skilful and
penetrating interpretation of his work, as well as a insightful
Heideggerian critique. At last somebody has taken Latour to heart
and to task. I cannot imagine a more forceful, incisive and lucid
analysis of the foundations of Latour s work than this one.'
Professor Lucas D. Introna (Lancaster University)
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