The ontological turn: Where are we?

Abstract

Sahlins makes a forceful case for unification of Descola’s fourfold scheme of ontologies. De Almeida graphically demonstrates differences possible even in unifying models. Descola continues his synthetic anthropology in Durkheimian, Lévi-Straussian mode, answering Sahlins with a strong defense of his four-ontologies view. Fischer tests Descola and Latour with Wittgensteinian skepticism of Whitehead, and a sensibility more post-Foucauldian than Lévi-Straussian. Fortun probes the politics of scientific inquiry in an age of extreme risks.