On the Possibility of a Sociological Mode of Existence. Bruno Latour and the Post-Secular Critiques of Belief

In the first of two methodological chapters, I will show how the current, post-secular critiques of the classical-sociological language of beliefs represent less of a departure of sociological modernity than its presentist reiteration, as both traditions, of secular modernity and post-secular non-modernity, employed the category of belief as a way to think and conceptualize the historical place of the sociologist in society. The work of French philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour will serve as the primary source for this claim, as I argue that his critique of the belief-category is still rooted in a broader language of belief and action, unable to fully abandon the belief-category as he distinctly intended and conceptualized throughout his work. While Latour himself seems to be well aware of this fact, he does not explicitly articulate this distinction, failing to separate his historical-anthropological method from his normative-philosophical claims.