About a Fruitful Misunderstanding: From Souriau’s Modes of Existence to Latour’s Ecologizing Inquiries

Abstract

This article examines the particular way Souriau’s concepts of instauration and modes of existence have been inherited by Bruno Latour in his Inquiry into Modes of Existence. It suggests that Bruno Latour has hacked some key-aspects of Souriau’s general ontology in order to regionalize it and, by doing so, to give the Moderns an accurate depiction of the plurality of beings they hold dear. It then shows how Souriau’s concept of instauration is crucial to Latour’s project of rethinking and repopulating modern institutions, in a gesture aimed at making metaphysics a vital practice that has the power to make the world worth of worrying and caring for.