Latourian Mannerism. From Modes of Existence to Situated Cosmopolitics

Abstract

This article develops an interpretation of Bruno Latour’s modal ontology through the notion of ontological mannerism, understood as a radical commitment to metaphysical plurality at the level of existence itself. Read in dialogue with Étienne Souriau’s aesthetic-metaphysical thought, Latour’s modes of existence are approached as irreducible ontological forms rather than variations of a single being. While this mannerist ontology displaces the universalist legacy of European metaphysics, the article argues that a tension persists between metaphysical plurality and cosmopolitical practice. When ontological radicality is not matched by an equally situated form of political composition, modal ontology risks losing its critical force and reverting to a domesticated, formalised pluralism. To address this internal tension, the essay turns to contemporary anthropology, arguing that only situated ethnographic practices can actualise cosmopolitics without undermining the metaphysical stakes of pluralism. Anthropology thus emerges as a necessary condition for the philosophical consistency of modal ontology.