French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Latour, Sur le culte moderne des dieux faitiches suivi de Iconoclash
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Bruno Latour, On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods followed by Iconoclash
Editions La Découverte, 2009
208 p.
13.50 €
ISBN : 9782359250046
This book marks a key milestone in Bruno Latour's ongoing project to develop a positive anthropology of Western societies. It consists of two texts that challenge two common notions: "belief" and "critique". The first text stems from an extended internship at the ethnopsychiatry clinic of the Devereux Centre, while the second (previously unpublished in French) serves as the introduction to the catalogue for the exhibition Iconoclash, which Bruno Latour curated in 2002.
Through the concept of the factish, Latour demonstrates that it is possible to respect the sciences without having to pit them against the delusions of subjectivity. With the notion of iconoclash, he proposes suspending the critical gesture in order to study its impact. Thanks to these conceptual bricolages, it becomes possible to examine two of the primary resources moderns have deployed to distinguish themselves from others: the critique of belief and the belief in critique. As a result, the world is no longer neatly divided between those immersed in warm illusions and those privy to cold reason.
Combining the intellectual daring and wit that have made him one of the world's best-known thinkers, Bruno Latour forges new tools to help us understand ourselves and reopen the conversation with other cultures.
Bruno Latour, philosopher and sociologist of science, is a professor at Sciences Po Paris. He has authored numerous books and articles on the anthropology of the modern world. Most of his books in French have been published by La Découverte, including Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (2006) and Small Lessons in the Sociology of Sciences (2007).
Table of contents:
Notice
On the Cult of the Factish Gods
Prologue
I / Fairy Objects, Object-Facts
How moderns manufacture fetishes among those they come into contact with
How moderns manage to construct fetishes at home
How moderns strive to distinguish facts from fetishes, without quite succeeding
How facts and fetishes blend their virtues, even among moderns
How the know-how of "factishes" eludes theory
How to draw the portrait of an anti-fetishist
How to sketch the split factishes of the moderns
II / Trans-frights
How to procure contraband deities thanks to suburban migrants
How to dispense with interiority and exteriority
How to draw up the "specifications" for deities
How to transfer frights
How to understand an action "overtaken by events"
Conclusion
Iconoclash
Why do images engender so much passion?
An exhibition on iconoclasm
Religion, science, and art: three different models of image-making
Which objects to select?
A classification of iconoclastic gestures
Beyond the image war: the cascade of images
Appendix: catalogue table of contents.
Bruno Latour's work is situated within the broader fields of the sociology of science, philosophical anthropology, and modern intellectual history. These disciplines have long investigated how Western societies construct boundaries between scientific objectivity and cultural belief systems, often contrasting rational knowledge with perceived illusion. Within this intellectual tradition, scholars examine the cultural practices, institutional mechanisms, and rhetorical strategies through which modernity defines its own relationship to truth, representation, and material culture.
This volume brings together two texts by Bruno Latour that challenge the common notions of belief and critique. The book consists of an extended text stemming from an internship at the Devereux Centre and a second text serving as the introduction to the catalogue for the exhibition Iconoclash, which Bruno Latour curated in 2002. Readers interested in contemporary philosophy, the sociology of science, and cultural anthropology may find this publication relevant to their inquiries.