French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Latour, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Bruno Latour, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence. An Anthropology of the Moderns

Paris, La Découverte, 2012

ISBN: 9782707173478

504 p. - 26 €

The spectre of modernization haunts the planet. Societies are continually compared and evaluated based on the advances or retreats of this seemingly irreversible front of modernization. Strangely enough, however, we still lack an anthropological description of those who present themselves as the originators of this very movement. In a previous book, Bruno Latour advanced the hypothesis that "we have never been modern": the development of science and technology has drawn us into a history of increasingly intimate attachments between humans and non-humans—a history running entirely counter to that of the Moderns, who supposedly emancipate themselves ever further from nature.
To identify the multiple, contradictory values upheld by those who call themselves Moderns, we must accept that there are several regimes of truth, several types of reason, and several modes of existence, the conditions of felicity and infelicity of which the investigator must carefully map out. We can then revisit the core of our collective life: the sciences, technologies, but also law, religion, politics, and, of course, economics—the strangest and most ethnocentric of all human productions. This allows us to pose a different set of questions: What on earth has happened to us? What can we inherit? What is truly our own? The stakes are hardly trivial at a time when ecological crises compel all societies to rethink what they hold in common.
To make headway with these questions, the author has devised an original framework rooted in a collective inquiry, for which the book serves as an introduction and provisional report. Through a purpose-built digital environment, readers will be able to participate in gathering the multiple experiences mapped out by the inquiry before becoming co-producers of the final versions. Through this exercise in "digital humanities," the author, together with his readers, seeks to renew the philosophical anthropology of the Moderns.

Table of Contents

User's Guide to the Inquiry
Acknowledgements
Overall Outline
Introduction
Regaining Trust in Institutions?
A startling question addressed to a climatologist—forcing us to distinguish values from the accounts given of them by practitioners. -- Between modernizing or ecologizing, a choice must be made—by proposing a new system of coordinates. -- This leads to the definition of an imaginary diplomatic scene: -- in whose name to negotiate—and with whom to negotiate? -- The inquiry resembles, first of all, that of speech acts—by learning to identify different modes of existence. -- The goal is primarily to accompany a wandering people caught between economics and ecology.
I / How to Make an Inquiry into the Modes of Existence of the Moderns Possible
1. First, Define the Object of the Inquiry
A female investigator sets out to conduct fieldwork among the Moderns—without respecting domain boundaries, thanks to the notion of the actor-network... -- ...which allows us to distinguish the network as a result from the network as a process. -- The inquiry defines a first mode of existence, the network [RES], through a particular passage. -- But the network [RES] has a limit: it does not qualify values. -- Law offers a point of comparison through its particular mode of displacement. -- There is therefore a definition of the limit that depends neither on the notion of domain nor on that of network. -- Comparison becomes possible with the mode of extension of objective knowledge. -- This makes it possible to define a situation via a [RES]-type capture, plus a specific relation between continuities and discontinuities. -- Thanks to a third type of passage—the religious—the investigator understands why values are difficult to detect—due to very specific ties with the institution—which will require taking into account a history of values and their interferences.
2. Gathering the Documents of the Inquiry
The inquiry begins by detecting category mistakes—not to be confused with first-degree errors; only second-degree errors matter to us. -- A mode possesses a veridiction type entirely its own—as seen by returning to the example of law. -- True and false are thus spoken both inside and outside a mode—provided one first defines the conditions of felicity and infelicity of each mode—and then its key to interpretation or preposition. -- Thus, we will be able to speak of each mode in its own proper tone—as implied by the etymology of category—as evidenced by the contrast between the demands of law and religion. -- The inquiry joins network-type [RES] captures with preposition-type [PRE] captures—by defining intersections that form a Crossed Table. -- A rather particular intersection [RES/PRE]—which poses a compatibility problem with actor-network theory. -- Recap of the conditions of the inquiry. -- What follows the thread of various reasons is rational.
3. A Perilous Change of Correspondence
Beginning with the most difficult task, the question of Science—by applying methodological principles through the tracking of passages—which allow us to disentangle two distinct modes of existence. -- Description of an ordinary journey: the example of an excursion on Mont Aiguille—will serve to define chains of reference and immutable mobiles—showing that reference is anchored neither in the knowing subject nor in the known object. -- The notion of object/subject correspondence conflates two passages—since it is clear that existents do not pass through immutable mobiles to persist in being. -- Although there is no limit to the extension of chains of reference [REF]—there are indeed two modes of existence that co-respond to one another. -- New conditions of felicity must therefore be registered—which will authorize a different distribution between language and existence—particularly clear in the canonical example of the laboratory. -- Hence the prominence of a new mode of existence: [REP] for reproduction—and a [REP/REF] intersection that is difficult to maintain in daylight—especially when one must resist the intrusion of Double Click.
4. Learning to Make Space
To afford sufficient space to the various modes—one must first attempt to grasp existents according to the mode of reproduction [REP]—making this mode a trajectory among others—so as to avoid the strange notion of an encroaching material space. -- If those who have occupied all space nevertheless find themselves lacking room—it is for failing to disentangle the notion of matter—through a proper use of the [REP/REF] intersection. -- Yet as soon as one begins to distinguish two meanings of the word "form"—the form that maintains constants and the form that reduces the hiatus of reference—one begins to obtain a non-formalist description of formalism—which is unfortunately effaced by a third meaning of the word form. -- Consequently, one risks erring regarding the trajectory of the beings of reproduction—confusing two distinct pathways within the idea of matter. -- A formalist description of the excursion on Mont Aiguille—produces a demonstration by absurdity of a doubling of things—which would entail a division into primary and secondary qualities. -- But once the origin of this Bifurcation into primary and secondary qualities is clearly pinpointed—it becomes a hypothesis too contrary to experience—and the magic of rationalism vanishes—since existents can no longer be confused with matter—a matter that would do justice neither to the world nor to the "lived."
5. Clearing Up Certain Linguistic Embarrassments
If one had to begin with the most difficult task—it was out of a desire for straight talk that binds formalism to the closure of discussions. -- Although this straight talk cannot rely on the demands of reference [REF]—it entails the disqualification of all other modes—by creating a dangerous conflation between knowledge and politics [REF/POL]—which forces us to abandon the thread of experience to put an end to discussions. -- Fortunately, the method that allows us to recognize an intersection—will manage to disengage within politics a proper veridiction [POL]—which relies on the continual retaking of a Circle—one that the trajectory of reference cannot properly judge. -- We must therefore admit a pluralism of veridiction types—to thwart the strange conflation of "indisputable facts"—and thus restore natural language to its expressive capacities. -- There remains the most difficult task: revisiting the division of words and things—by liberating ourselves from matter, that is to say, from res ratiocians —and thereby endowing ourselves with new capacities for analysis and discernment—in order to speak of values without putting reality in parentheses. -- Language is indeed articulated, just like the world of which it takes charge—provided we distrust the notion of the sign. -- We are dealing indeed with modes of existence, and there are more than two—which compels us to take into account the history of interferences between modes.
6. Remedying a Slight Manufacturing Defect
The difficulty of conducting an inquiry among the Moderns—stems from the impossibility of positively hearing the fabrication of facts—which leads to a curious connivance between critical spirit and the search for foundations. -- We must therefore revisit the notion of construction by distinguishing three traits: -- 1. action is redoubled -- 2. the direction of action is uncertain -- 3. action is qualified as good or bad. -- Yet constructivism fails to retain the traits of a good construction. -- We must therefore move on to the concept of instauration—but in order to instigate, we need beings that have some response—which implies a technical distinction between being-as-being and being-as-other—and thus several forms of alterity or alteration. -- We then find ourselves faced with a methodological embarrassment—which forces us to seek another origin for the failures of constructivism: -- iconoclasm and the struggle against fetishes. -- Everything happens as though the extraction of religious value had misunderstood idols—because of the contradictory injunction of a God not made by human hands—which has brought about a new cult: anti-fetishism—as well as the invention of belief in the belief of others—which has turned the word rational into a battle cry. -- We must attempt to do away with belief in belief—by detecting the double root of the double talk of the Moderns—stemming from the improbable tie between knowledge and belief. -- Welcome to the beings of instauration. -- Nothing more than experience, but no less than experience.
II / How to Benefit from the Pluralism of Modes of Existence
7. Restoring the Beings of Metamorphosis
We are going to take advantage of ontological pluralism—by attempting to approach certain invisible beings. -- There is no more an invisible world than a "visible world"—if one strives to grasp the networks [RES] that produce interiorities. -- Since the autonomy of subjects comes to them from the "outside"—it is better to dispense with both interiority and exteriority. -- A return to the experience of emotion—which allows us to spot uncertainty regarding the target—and the power of psychotropic devices and other "mind-benders." -- These beings are well established within therapeutic frameworks—and in particular within the laboratory of ethnopsychiatry. -- The beings of metamorphosis [MET]—possess a demanding form of veridiction—and specific ontological requirements—which can be rationally followed—provided one does not apply the judgment of Double Click [DC] to them. -- Their originality stems from a certain extraction of alteration—which explains why invisibility is part of their job description. -- The [REP/MET] intersection is of capital importance—but it has been primarily worked upon by other collectives—thus offering a new basis for negotiation in comparative anthropology.
8. Making the Beings of Technology Visible
The singular silence maintained regarding techniques—and their particular form of transcendence—requires, in addition to an analysis in terms of networks [TEC/RES],—the detection of an original mode of existence, distinct from reproduction [REP/TEC]. -- We must return to the experience of the technical detour—concealed by Double Click and the form/function relationship. -- Drawing lessons from the [REP/REF] intersection concerning matter—we will no longer confuse technology with the objects left in its wake. -- Technology offers a particular form of invisibility: -- the labyrinth of technology. -- Its mode of existence depends on cunning [MET/TEC]—as much as on the persistence of the beings of reproduction [REP/TEC]. -- The veridiction proper to [TEC]—depends on an original folding—detectable thanks to the key notion of disengagement. -- The unfolding of this mode provides new margins of maneuver.
9. Situating the Beings of Fiction
Multiplying modes of existence presupposes defusing the importance of language—which is the other face of the Bifurcation of words and the world. -- To avoid confusing sense and sign—we must return to the experience of the beings of fiction [FIC]. -- Beings overvalued by the institution of the work of art—yet stripped of their ontological weight. -- Yet the experience proper to the beings of [FIC]—invites us to recognize their own consistency—an original trajectory—as well as a specific job description. -- These beings stem from a new alteration: the material/figure vibration—which grants them a particularly demanding mode of veridiction. -- We are the children of our works. -- The dispatch of the work presupposes a disengagement—different from that of the beings of technology [TEC/FIC]. -- Beings of fiction [FIC] reign far beyond the work of art—they populate in particular the [FIC/REF] intersection—where they undergo a slight difference in the discipline of figures—which causes the misunderstanding of correspondence. -- We can then revisit the difference between sense and sign—and recover access to the articulated world.
10. Learning to Respect Appearances
To remain sensitive to both the timing and dosage of the modes—the anthropologist must resist the temptations of occidentalism. -- Is there a mode of existence proper to essence? -- The most widespread of all, the one that starts from prepositions while omitting them: -- habit [HAB] is also a mode of existence—with that paradoxical hiatus producing immanence. -- By following the experience of attentive habit—we see how this mode of existence manages to trace continuities—thanks to specific conditions of felicity. -- Habit possesses an ontological dignity of its own—stemming from the fact that it veils without hiding anything. -- We thus come to understand the distance between theory and practice in an entirely different light—allowing us to give a more charitable definition of Double Click [HAB/DC]. -- To each mode its own way of playing with habit. -- This mode of existence can help positively define institutions—provided we take into account the generation of those who speak—and avoid the temptation of fundamentalism.
Conclusion of the Second Part
Sorting the Modes of Existence
Wherein we encounter an unexpected sorting problem. -- The first group ignores both Object and Subject. -- Lines of force and lineages [REP] insist on continuity—much as the beings of metamorphosis [MET] insist on difference—and those of habit [HAB] on dispatch. -- A second group revolves around quasi-objects—[TEC], [FIC], and [REF], which are at the origin of n+1 planes of enunciation—and produce an n-1 plane by a feedback effect. -- This sorting offers a pacified version of the old Object/Subject relationship—and therefore another possible position for anthropogenesis.
III / How to Redefine Collectives
11. Welcoming Beings Sensitive to the Word
While it is impossible not to speak of the religious—we must not trust the boundaries of the domain of Religion—but rather return to the experience of the romantic crisis—which allows us to discover angels bearing soul-shaking upheavals—provided we distinguish between healing and saving while exploring the [MET/REL] intersection. -- We then discover a proper hiatus—which allows us to retake the Word—without thereby leaving the pathways of the rational. -- [REL] defines beings with a specific job description—because these beings appear and disappear—and possess particularly discriminating conditions of felicity—since they define a subsistence that rests upon no substance—but is defined by a proper alteration: "the times are fulfilled"—and by a proper mode of veridiction. -- A powerful yet fragile institution to be protected—both against the misunderstandings of the [REL/PRE] intersection—and those of the [MET/REL] intersection—...and the [REF/REL] intersection, which produces undue rationalizations. -- It is rationalization that produces belief in belief—and causes us to lose both knowledge and faith—entailing the joint loss of neighbors and distant others—as well as the superfluous invention of the supernatural. -- Hence the importance of always specifying the terms of the metalanguage.
12. Invoking the Phantoms of Politics
Can a contrast be lost, as in the case of the political? -- An institution legitimately proud of its values—yet without any grip on practical description—which demands a necessary return to self before it can be universalized. -- To avoid abandoning reason too quickly in politics [POL]—and to understand that there is no crisis of representation—we must neither over-assume the unreason of [POL]—nor fail to follow the experience of political speech. -- An object-oriented politics—allows us to detect the squaring of the political Circle—provided we clearly distinguish between talking about politics and talking politically. -- We then discover a particular type of passage that traces the impossible Circle—which includes or excludes depending on whether it is retaken or not. -- A first definition of the [POL]-type hiatus: the curve—and a very particular trajectory: autonomy. -- A new definition of the hiatus: discontinuity—and a particularly demanding type of veridiction—which the [REF/POL] intersection misunderstands. -- [POL] practices a very particular extraction of alterity—which defines a phantom public—against the figure of Society—which would render the political even more monstrous than it already is. -- Will we ever be able to relearn the language of well-spoken curves?
13. The Passage of Law and Quasi-Subjects
Fortunately, there is no problem in speaking of law juridically—since law is its own explanation. -- Nevertheless, it presents particular difficulties—through its strange blend of strength and weakness—its highly unautonomous autonomy—and because it has been burdened with too many values. -- We must therefore establish a particular protocol to follow—the passage of law paved by means—and recognize terribly demanding conditions of felicity. -- Law reconnects the planes of enunciation—thanks to a very particular formalism. -- We can now understand the peculiarity of quasi-subjects—by learning to respect their contributions: first, the beings of politics, [POL]... -- ...the beings of law [DRO]... -- ...and finally, the beings of religion [REL]. -- Quasi-subjects are all regimes of enunciation sensitive to tone. -- Classing the modes allows us to properly articulate what must be said—and finally explain this modernist obsession with the Subject/Object difference. -- New terror of the anthropologist: the fourth group, the continent of Economy.
14. Speaking Organization in Its Own Language
Second Nature resists in an entirely different way than first Nature—which makes it difficult to circumvent the Economy—unless we detect three discrepancies with ordinary experience. -- A first temperature discrepancy: cold instead of hot. -- A second discrepancy: an empty space instead of a bustling agora. -- A third discrepancy: no detectable difference in levels. -- This allows us to surmise the conflation of three distinct modes: [ATT], [ORG], and [MOR]. -- The paradoxical situation of organization [ORG]—is better spotted by starting from a lightly equipped case—which allows us to trace how scripts turn us "upside down." -- To organize is necessarily to re-organize / dis-organize. -- There is indeed a proper mode of existence here—with explicit conditions of felicity and infelicity—and its particular alteration of being-as-other: the framework. -- We can thus dispense with Providence to write scripts—provided we clearly distinguish piling from aggregation—and avoid the phantom meta-dispatcher of Society—by maintaining the methodological decision that the small measures the large—the only way to follow scaling operations. -- Consequently, economization devices can be brought to the foreground—allowing us to distinguish two distinct meanings of property—while grasping the slight addition brought by calculation devices. -- Two modes not to be confused under the expression of economic reason.
15. Mobilizing the Beings of Passionate Interest
While the whole is always inferior to the parts—we have several reasons for erring regarding the experience of organization: -- confusion with the political Circle [POL/ORG]—confusion between organization and organism [REP/ORG]—the technical ballast of scripts [TEC/ORG]—confusion between the unequal distribution of scripts and scaling—all of this leads to an inverted experience of the social. -- By returning to the experience of what sets scripts in motion—we gauge what must be passed through in order to subsist—discovering the beings of passionate interest [ATT]. -- But several obstacles to rendering this new experience must be removed: first, the notion of embeddedness—then the notion of preference calculation—then the obstacle of an Object/Subject relation—fourthly, the obstacle of exchange—and finally, the fifth obstacle: the cult of commodities. -- Then appears a particular mode of alteration of being—with an original passage: interest and valorization—and its own conditions of felicity. -- This kneading of existents—leads to the enigma of the intersection with organization [ATT/ORG]—which will allow us to disentangle the matter of second Nature.
16. Quickening the Experience of Scruple
The detection of the [ATT/ORG] intersection—should lead to praising accounting devices. -- Yet the Economy claims to calculate values through value-free facts—which transforms the experience of being quits—into a decree of Providence capable of calculating the optimum—and of emptying the stage where goods and evils are distributed. -- If the moral question has already arisen for each mode—there is nonetheless a new source of morality in the uncertainty regarding ends and means. -- Responsible is he who responds to a call—which cannot be universal without an experience of the universe. -- We can therefore draw up the job description of moral beings [MOR]—and define their proper mode of veridiction: the retaking of scruple—and their particular alteration: the quest for the optimum. -- The Economy transforms into a metaphysics—when it conflates two types of calculation in the [REF/MOR] intersection—causing it to confuse a discipline with a science—which would do no more than describe an economic matter. -- The Economy thus puts an end to any moral experience. -- It is the fourth group that links quasi-objects and quasi-suites—misunderstood by the endless war of the two visible and invisible hands. -- Can the Moderns become agnostic regarding the Economy—and refound the institution of economic discipline?
Conclusion
Can We Praise the Coming Civilization?
To avoid failure, we must define through a series of tests the trial that the inquiry must pass: -- First test: Are the detected experiences shareable? -- Second test: Does the detection of a mode allow us to respect other modes? -- (By the way, why twelve modes plus three?) -- Third test: Can we propose accounts other than those offered by the author? -- Fourth test: Can the inquiry transform into a diplomatic framework—to redesign institutions adjusted to the modes—by opening a new space for comparative anthropology—through a series of negotiations on values? -- To new wars, new peaces.

Bruno Latour's work engages directly with the intellectual traditions of philosophical anthropology, science and technology studies, and sociology. By questioning the self-understanding of modern societies and their purported separation from nature, the book contributes to ongoing debates concerning epistemology, collective life, and the human sciences. It addresses foundational concepts such as actor-networks, regimes of truth, and the relations between humans and non-humans, locating them within a broader inquiry into how various domains—including science, law, religion, politics, and economics—construct their respective realities.

Readers interested in contemporary philosophy, social theory, and the cultural implications of ecological crises may find this study relevant. The volume serves as an introduction and provisional report for a collective inquiry, incorporating digital methodologies to examine the multiple values upheld by those who consider themselves modern. It outlines various modes of existence and conditions of felicity, inviting reflection on what contemporary societies inherit and how they might rethink shared futures.