Cosmopolitical Propositions: A Historiographic Analysis of Contemporary Anthropological Perspectives on Sciences

Abstract

Recent advances in anthropology, in a general sense, and, more specifically, in laboratory anthropology, have encouraged proposals for metaphysical renovation, which deviates from the modern idea of an absolute and permanent separation between nature and society. Anthropologists such as Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Phelippe Descola have shown how different groups enable the existence of not only different cultures, but also different natures, which rather than simply denoting multiculturalism, also describes multinaturalism. Likewise, science studies – especially Bruno Latour’s studies on laboratory anthropology – have also indicated the possibility of a metaphysical conception in which ontology, epistemology, and politics are not separated a priori. These insights point at the existence of cosmopolitics, in which several human and nonhuman actors take part in shaping reality – a notion coined by philosopher Isabelle Stengers. This is a conception that defies conventional metaphysical guise and the very divisions of philosophy (ontology, epistemology, and politics), which holds serious repercussions on how history of science can be narrated, and on history itself. This chapter intends to provide an overview of the ontological turn of anthropology to carry out a historiographical analysis of research studies built on cosmopolitical theory – that is, how it impacts on their conceptualization, narrative structures, and methodological choices. To this end, historical studies by Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers, and Dipesh Chakrabasty are analyzed and interpreted together to indicate methodological guidelines for composing historical narratives from a cosmopolitical point of view.