Passage: “It seems strange at first to claiim that space and time may be constructed locally, but these are the most common of all constructions. Space is constituted by reversible and time by irreversible displacements,: (230)
Question: Doesn’t every field redefine time and space for themselves? Latour’s definition is especially confusing to someone that has looked at space and time from other fields. He refers to them as reversible and irreversible displacements measured by machines. It seems that he has it a bit backwards. I always understood time as a man made concept.
Passage: “Yes, but once households, amino acids and inclined planes have been through the logistics above, brought onto a white piece of paper and asked to write themselves down in forms and figures, then their mathematics is very very close; it is literally as close as one piece of paper is from another in a book. The adequation of mathematics with the empirical world is a deep mystery.” (240)
Question: I am not sure what he means by households or that it matters. I can see how amino acids and other inanimate matters are alike on paper, but am very confused by his example.
Why exactly does Latour use households, amino acid, and a moving object in compare and contrast? Are they representative of something else?
