Interview With Bruno Latour

Directed by Nicolas Truong and Camille de Chenay

In a highly detailed interview, renowned French philosopher and political scientist Bruno Latour sets out his thoughts on the climate crisis as well as his own philosophy. He passed away on 9 October 2022.

Trailer

Born in 1947, Bruno Latour is a philosopher, sociologist and anthropologist who has never before given in-depth interviews. At the end of October 2021, he asked Nicolas Truong, journalist for Le Monde, to revisit his fifty years of research. With finesse and a sense of humour, he exposes, in front of the camera, the most important elements of his thoughts and reflections, supported by decades of research.

A documentary (2×52 min)

Part 1 - A New World

In the first part, Bruno Latour explains how we have changed our world, and why ecological disasters are closing the parenthesis of the three centuries that began with the Enlightenment, even decreeing 'the end of modernity'. Over the last fifty years, the work of researchers in natural sciences turned our knowledge upside down. Having sought to unravel the mysteries of the Universe, we are now being invited to realize that our planet is only covered by a thin skin a few kilometres thick, called the 'critical zone' by some scientists and 'Gaia' by Bruno Latour, following the British thinker James Lovelock. The habitability of our 'new Earth' is so threatened that we need to stop living off the ground and 'land'.

Part 2 - Modes of Existence

In the second part, he sets out his philosophy and takes stock of our modes of existence, in order to understand how we can find our way in a damaged world. Having come to ecology through the philosophy of science, he goes back to the source of his research into the human mechanisms that claim the emergence of 'truth' and to his work on the 'sociology of laboratories', during which he observed that science is not given, but socially constructed and nourished by countless controversies.

A series of 12 episodes

  • Episode 1 - A New World
  • Episode 2 - The End of Modernity
  • Episode 3 - Gaia: Our New Earth
  • Episode 4 - Down to Earth
  • Episode 5 - The New Ecological Class
  • Episode 6 - Building Collectives
  • Episode 7 - Truth and Religion
  • Episode 8 - Scientific Practice
  • Episode 9 - Modes of Existence
  • Episode 10 - The Political Circle
  • Episode 11 - Philosophy is Beautiful
  • Episode 12 - A Letter to my Grandson

Directed by :
Camille de Chenay and Nicolas Truong
Written by :
Nicolas Truong
Produced by :
YAMI 2 - Christophe Nick
Broadcast :
ARTE
Year of broadcast :
2022
Duration :
2×52 min and 12×7 min

Bruno Latour: "The philosopher must work to restore the power to act" - read the article about Bruno Latour in the series of interviews in Le Monde.

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