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History of the Human Sciences, Vol. 19, No. 2, 45-72 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0952695106065128

The ethics of reality and virtual reality: Latour, facts and values

Mariam Fraser

Department of Sociology, Goldsmith's College, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK. Tel: 0207 717 2204m.fraser{at}gold.ac.uk

In the context of the question of the extent to which science studies is able to mount an adequate critique of contemporary developments in science and technology, and in view of the proliferating interest in ethics across the social sciences, this article has two aims. Firstly to address some of the implications for ethics of Bruno Latour's, and to a lesser extent Alfred North Whitehead’s, conceptions of reality, both of which have a bearing on the long-standing dichotomy between facts and values. Drawing on Whitehead's work, it also, secondly, seeks to make a positive argument for ethics and to ask again, in the light of this discussion, where the ethical dimensions of Latour's work might be located. Towards the end of the article, I suggest that Latour's concept of exteriority obliges him to pursue a politics of reality which is the special providence of ‘moralists’, rather than a politics of virtual reality in which all entities, human and non-human, are engaged.

Key Words: ethics • facts • Bruno Latour • reality • values


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