Bruno Latour's 2008 lecture, "A Cautious Prometheus," argues that the expanding usage of the word "design" reflects a shift away from modernist ideals of progress and control. He proposes five key connotations of "design" – humility, attention to detail, semiotic interpretation, remediation, and an inherent ethical dimension – contrasting it with the hubris of "construction." Latour connects this shift to Peter Sloterdijk's philosophy, which emphasizes the artificiality of human environments ("spheres") and the need for "explicitation" to reconcile emancipation and attachment. Latour concludes by challenging designers to develop new visualization tools capable of representing the complex, contested nature of "matters of concern" in a post-modern world, moving beyond the limitations of modernist representations of "matters of fact."

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Latour, B. (2008). A cautious prometheus? A few steps toward a philosophy of design (with special attention to Peter Sloterdijk).

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