The Pasteurization Of France Latour Analysis

In his book The Pasteurization of France Latour says that not everything in science can be explained by society. At first glance, this proposition may seem hard to believe since Latour gives so many examples on how society has affected scientific findings. However, even though Latour’s argument is more society oriented than he lead on to believe, Latour presents a well thought out and balanced argument that science is influenced by both society and nature. Some arguments that Latour uses to showcase this relationship between science, society and nature include Pasteur’s vaccination of rabies and the rise of the hygiene movement. Overall, Latour interweaves many different types of examples in order to present a full picture of science and …show more content…
One example that Latour gives is Pasteur’s vaccination of Rabies. Latour makes the argument that the rabies vaccine was so effective that nothing else could have explained its success other than the fact that it worked. Society might have spread word of the vaccine through magazines and other forms of media but ultimately society does not determine whether a vaccine works or not. In other words, the success of the vaccine can only be attributed to scientific facts, not to society. It wouldn’t have mattered how much society had promoted Pasteur’s vaccine if it hadn’t worked. An example of this fact actually exists in today's modern society. Many sources of media often market diet pills to the general population because society places such a heavy emphasis on losing weight. However, these diet pills never really catch on because they ultimately don’t work. The only thing which can explain the ineffectiveness of these dieting pills is ultimately nature. No matter how you look at society, it will never be able to explain why a diet pill filled with bogus ingredients doesn’t help someone lose