Gilbert Simondon

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Gilbert Simondon
Western Philosophy
20th-century philosophy
Full name Gilbert Simondon
School/tradition Continental philosophy
Main interests Philosophy of nature, Technique, Technology
Notable ideas Individuation

Gilbert Simondon (October 2, 1924 – February 7, 1989) was a French philosopher best known for his theory of individuation.

Contents

[edit] Career

Born in Saint-Étienne, Simondon was a student of philosopher of science Georges Canguilhem, Martial Guéroult, and phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Sorbonne. He defended his doctoral dissertations in 1958. His main thesis, L'individuation à la lumière des notions de Forme et d'Information (Individuation in the light of the notions of Form and Information), was published in two parts, the first in 1964 under the title L'individu et sa génèse physico-biologique (Individuation and its physical-biological genesis) at the Presses Universitaires de France, while it is only in 1989 that Aubier published the second part, L'individuation psychique et collective (Psychic and collective individuation). While his main thesis, which laid the foundations of his thinking, was not widely read until it was commented upon by Gilles Deleuze and, more recently, Bruno Latour and Bernard Stiegler, his complementary thesis, Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (On the mode of existence of technical objects) was published by Aubier immediately after being completed (in 1958) and had an instant impact on a wide audience. It was only in 2005 that Jérôme Millon published a complete edition of the main thesis.

[edit] Individuation and technology

In L'individuation psychique et collective, Simondon developed a theory of individual and collective individuation, in which the individual subject is considered as an effect of individuation, rather than as a cause. Thus the individual atom is replaced by the neverending process of individuation. Simondon also conceived of "pre-individual fields" as the funds making individuation itself possible. Individuation is an always incomplete process, always leaving a "pre-individual" left-over, itself making possible future individuations. Furthermore, individuation always creates both an individual and a collective subject, which individuate themselves together.

Gilbert Simondon criticized Norbert Wiener's theory of cybernetics, arguing that, "Right from the start, Cybernetics has accepted what all theory of technology must refuse: a classification of technological objects conducted by means of established criteria and following genera and species." Simondon aimed to overcome the shortcomings of cybernetics by developing a "general phenomenology" of machines.

[edit] Influence

Simondon's theory of individuation through transduction in a metastable environment was an important influence on the thought of Gilles Deleuze.

Simondon's work has also been adopted by Bernard Stiegler, who places the theory of individuation at the very heart of his philosophical project. Stiegler nevertheless argues that, paradoxically, Simondon failed to think the constitutive role that technical individuation plays in psychic and collective individuation.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "What links the I with the we in this individuation is a preindividual milieu, which has positive conditions of effectivity, related to what I have called the retentional apparatuses. These retentional apparatuses are supported by the technical milieu, which is the condition of the meeting of the I and the we: the individuation of I and of we is equally in a sense the individuation of a technical system (this is what Simondon, strangely, didn’t see)." Stiegler, De la misère symbolique 1. L'époque hyperindustrielle (Paris: Galilée, 2004), p. 106.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Primary literature

  • Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (Méot, 1958; second ed. Paris: Aubier, 1989).
  • L'individu et sa genèse physico-biologique (l'individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information) (Paris: PUF, 1964; second ed. J.Millon, coll. Krisis, 1995).
  • L'individuation psychique et collective (Paris, Aubier, 1989 et 2007 - préface de Bernard Stiegler).

Published 2005–2006

  • L’Invention dans les techniques, Cours et conferences (Éd. du Seuil, coll. "Traces écrites").
  • L’Individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information (Jérôme Millon, coll. Krisis).
  • Cours sur la perception (1964-1965), Préface de Renaud Barbaras (Editions de La Tansparence).

Published 2008

  • Imagination et invention (1965-1966)(Editions de La Transparence)

English translations

  • "The Genesis of the Individual," in Jonathan Crary & Sanford Kwinter (eds.), Incorporations (New York: Zone Books, 1992): 297–319.
  • "Technical Individualization," in Joke Brouwer & Arjen Mulder (eds.), Interact or Die! (Rotterdam: NAi, 2007).

[edit] Secondary literature

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gilbert Simondon

[edit] Online translations

[edit] Other links

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