A long-awaited translation on the philosophical relation between technology, the individual, and milieu of the living.

La pensée philosophique peut-elle faire plus que comprendre les problèmes? Peut-elle être source de solutions pour l'action? Dans ce recueil d'inédits dont le fil directeur est la pensée philosophique, son développement, sa portée et la tâche qui lui incombe, Gilbert Simondon apparaît comme l'homme d'une philosophie aussi exigeante, lucide et probe que réaliste : c'est quand la pensée est vraiment réflexive qu'elle peut être source d'action, donner des normes, se faire vraie morale et vraie politique par-delà les mythes (...) et les partis pris sclérosants, "scolastiques". Ces promesses de la pensée n'ont cessé d'être soulignées dans toute son oeuvre. Un volume qui articule constamment la pensée et l'action, les problèmes posés par le monde actuel et leurs solutions. (shrink)

Here, in English translation for the first time, is Gilbert Simondon's fundamental reconception of the mental image and the theory of imagination and invention. Drawing on a vast range of mid-twentieth-century theoretical resources, this book provides a comprehensive account of the mental image and adds a vital new dimension to the theory of psychical individuation in Simondon's earlier, highly influential work.

This short piece is a partial translation of the introduction to Gilbert Simondon’s most succinct philosophical reflections on the notions of form, information, and potentials. The material was presented on February 27, 1960, at the Session of the Société française de philosophie. After the abstract and Simondon’s definitions of form, information, and transductive operation, there is a discussion between Simondon and other attendees who were present at his talk, including Paul Ricoeur and Jean Hyppolite, both of (...) whom had been part of Simondon’s viva panel in 1958. The piece represents an interesting moment in the history of philosophy where cybernetics and information theory were problematized by thinkers like Simondon, who thought that the concept of information needed to be expanded and refined to adequately account for processes of individuation, or "ontogenesis.". (shrink)

Texto de autoria de Gilbert Simondon publicado em 2006 pela Revue philosophique de la France et de l´étranger por ocasião de um número consagrado ao seu pensamento.

Gilbert Simondon was a French philosopher of technology best known for his theory of individuation through transduction in a metastable environment. Simondon's work has been championed by thinkers such as Gille Deleuze and continues to attract new interest within a variety of academic fields.

Dans l'Antiquité, la perception a joué un rôle majeur comme soubassement de la réflexion philosophique parce qu'elle était, avant le développement des sciences physiques et naturelles, le principal mode de connaissance du monde. Au contraire, après la découverte de la mécanique, l'époque classique a trouvé une source de savoir déductif et constructif indépendant de tout exercice préalable de la perception ; le rationalisme cartésien peut étudier le fonctionnement supposé des organes des sens sans préoccupation logique ou normative [...] ; le (...) rôle de la perception dans la problématique réflexive devient alors mineur, même au sein de l'empirisme ou du criticisme. Enfin, le positivisme et les progrès de la biologie redonnent aux problèmes perceptifs une importance primordiale, parce qu'ils découvrent dans la perception, humaine aussi bien qu'animale, une activité fonctionnelle, vivant rapport entre l'organisme et le milieu ; [...] la perception redevient ainsi, à l'époque moderne et contemporaine, un principe d'intelligibilité, non plus comme source de paradigmes logiques et critère de la connaissance vraie, mais comme point de départ d'une théorie des rapports entre l'organisme et le milieu. G. S. (shrink)

Nel presente contributo proponiamo un’intervista a Nathalie Simondon, responsabile dell’edizione dell’opera di Gilbert Simondon, al fine di fare luce sui temi di ecologia, enciclopedismo, transdisciplinarità e umanismo nella produzione filosofica di Gilbert Simondon.

Les etudes reunies ont ete presentees au Colloque International de Bruxelles organise sous les auspices de la FISP (Federation Internationale des Societes de Philosophie) en 2002 dont le theme a ete conserve comme titre du recueil. L'intention etait d'illustrer la maniere dont divers philosophes ont traite ou esquive la question de la technique. L'ampleur du champ, historique et contemporain, interdisait toute exhaustivite. Le dessein etait plus anthologique qu'encyclopedique. Les analyses critiques qui composent le volume manifestent l'interet de cette approche appliquee (...) a Aristote, Lulle, Salutati, Kant, Kapp, Bergson, Ortega, Schmitt, Jonas, Brun, Arendt, Foucault, Simondon, Heidegger, Haraway, Fukuyama. Et il serait fecond de l'etendre tant il vrai qu'en notre epoque tres technologique, poser aux philosophes qui nous sont les plus familiers, la question du sort qu'ils reservent a la technique s'avere riche en enseignements sur eux et pour nous. (shrink)

This first collection of essays, by renowned critics and philosophers, outlines the central tenets of Simondon's thought, the implications of his work in numerous disciplines and his relationship to other thinkers such as Heidegger, Deleuze ...

An accessible yet rigorous introduction to the influential French philosopher Gilbert Simondon's philosophy of individuation. Gilbert Simondon, one of the most influential contemporary French philosophers, published only three works: L'individu et sa genèse physico-biologique and L'individuation psychique et collective, both drawn from his doctoral thesis, and Du mode d'existence des objets techniques. It is this last work that brought Simondon into the public eye; as a consequence, he has been considered a “thinker of technics” and (...) cited often in pedagogical reports on teaching technology. Yet Simondon was a philosopher whose ambitions lay in an in-depth renewal of ontology as a process of individuation—that is, how individuals come into being, persist, and transform. In this accessible yet rigorous introduction to Simondon's work, Muriel Combes helps to bridge the gap between Simondon's account of technics and his philosophy of individuation. Some thinkers have found inspiration in Simondon's philosophy of individuation, notably Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Combes's account, first published in French in 1999, is one of the only studies of Simondon to appear in English. Combes breaks new ground, exploring an ethics and politics adequate to Simondon's hypothesis of preindividual being, considering through the lens of transindividual philosophy what form a nonservile relation to technology might take today. Her book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Simondon's work. (shrink)

One of the most innovative and brilliant philosophers of his generation, but largely neglected until he was brought to public attention by Gilles Deleuze, Gilbert Simondon presents a challenge to nearly every category and method of traditional philosophy. Psychic and Collective Individuation is undoubtedly Simondon's most important work and its influence, clearly felt in Stiegler and DeLanda, has continued to grow. David Scott provides the first full introduction to this work, which will inspire as well as instruct (...) philosophers working in Continental thought, philosophy of science, social theory and political philosophy. (shrink)

The first sustained exploration of Simondon's work to be published in English. This collection of essays, including one by Simondon himself, outlines the central tenets of Simondon's thought, the implication of his thought for numerous disciplines and his relationship to other thinkers such as Heidegger, Deleuze and Canguilhem.Complete with a contextualising introduction and a glossary of technical terms, it offers an entry point to this important thinker and will appeal to people working in philosophy, philosophy of science, (...) media studies, social theory and political philosophy.Gilbert Simondon's work has recently come to prominence in America and around the Anglophone world, having been of great importance in France for many years. (shrink)

A philosophical introduction to and interrogation of the work of Gilbert Simondon and its relation to contemporary media technology, communication and information.

ResumoO presente artigo visa mostrar o significado da filosofia biológica da técnica em Gilbert Simondon. Essa rubrica coloca em ação uma leitura da filosofia da técnica do filósofo francês como uma ontologia regional no interior de sua ontologia geral ontogenética, que, nesse regime específico, baseia-se em um modelo do orgânico. Para tanto, mostraremos que a individuação dos objetos técnicos, sua concretização marcada pela superdeterminação funcional, obriga-nos a pensá-los em sua organicidade e desde uma organologia geral. Ademais, os conceitos (...) de adaptação e de ambiente associado também contribuem enquanto aspectos biológicos que acompanham a concepção de Simondon do modo de existência dos seres técnicos. Como resultado, veremos que quanto mais concreto e adaptado - na série de sua evolução específica -, mais o objeto técnico se aproxima da individualidade propriamente biológica. Essa aproximação não terá, entretanto, o sentido de uma assimilação completa entre o técnico e o orgânico. Na autoprodução vital, permanece sempre um resto para além do maquínico, cuja demonstração é erigida por Simondon, por fim, com a ideia de uma origem vital absoluta dos objetos técnicos enquanto "mutação orientada". Apontaremos que tal origem não tem base meramente humana, mas se estende também para outras esferas do domínio vital.The present article aims to show the meaning of the biological philosophy of technique in Gilbert Simondon. This concept puts into action a reading of the French philosopher's philosophy of technique as a regional ontology within his ontogenetic general ontology, which in that particular scheme is based on an organic model. We will elaborate this to show that the individuation of technical objects, their concretization marked by their functional overdetermination, forces us to think of them in its organicity and from a general organology. Moreover, the concepts of adaptation and associated environment also contribute as biological aspects that accompany Simondon's conception of the mode of existence of technical beings. As a result, we will see that the more concrete and adapted the technical object is - in the series of its specific evolution - the more it comes closer to the proper biological individuality. This approximation will not have, however, the meaning of a complete assimilation between the technical and the organic. In the vital self-production, Simondon demonstrates that there always remains something beyond the machinical, namely, the idea of an absolute vital source of technical objects as a "guided mutation". We will show that such a source is not merely human, but also extends to other spheres of the vital domain. (shrink)

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the field of ‘art-science’ collaborations for their perceived capacity to develop new cultural understandings of technology and science. In this article, and through an engagement with the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon, I argue that if art-science represents an important site for the formation of an alternate technical culture today, then it is because of the new technical mentalities that such practices might cultivate. Here, creating a new technical mentality is (...) more than just a representational concern with enhancing ‘public awareness’ of technology, instead referring to more material transformations in our embodied capacities for perceiving and affectively engaging with technologies. I flesh this potential out through an encounter with work of Art Orienté objet, whose art-science collaborations challenge the anthropocentric and utilitarian mentalities of contemporary bioscience through explorations of the transindividual conditions of human embodiment and its material immersion within nonhuman ecologies. (shrink)

Gilbert Simondon, one of the most influential contemporary French philosophers, published only three works: L'individu et sa genèse physico-biologique and L'individuation psychique et collective, both drawn from his doctoral thesis, and _Du mode d'existence des objets techniques_. It is this last work that brought Simondon into the public eye; as a consequence, he has been considered a "thinker of technics" and cited often in pedagogical reports on teaching technology. Yet Simondon was a philosopher whose ambitions lay (...) in an in-depth renewal of ontology as a process of individuation--that is, how individuals come into being, persist, and transform. In this accessible yet rigorous introduction to Simondon's work, Muriel Combes helps to bridge the gap between Simondon's account of technics and his philosophy of individuation. Some thinkers have found inspiration in Simondon's philosophy of individuation, notably Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Combes's account, first published in French in 1999, is one of the only studies of Simondon to appear in English. Combes breaks new ground, exploring an ethics and politics adequate to Simondon's hypothesis of preindividual being, considering through the lens of transindividual philosophy what form a nonservile relation to technology might take today. Her book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Simondon's work. (shrink)

For a long time, Gilbert Simondon’s work was known only as either a philosophy restricted to the problem of technology or as an inspirational source for Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of difference. As Simondon’s thinking is now finally in the process of being recognized in its own right as one of the most original philosophies of the twentieth century, this also entails that some critical work needs to be done to disentangle it from an all too hasty identification (...) with Deleuzian categories. While both Simondon and Deleuze have made crucial contributions towards a theory of differential individuation that significantly diverges from other authors associated with French poststructuralism insofar as they insist on the dynamic and vital dimension of difference, they also differ on crucial points. Whereas Simondon sees the process of becoming as transductive amplification, Deleuze theorizes it as intensifying involution, leading to two notably distinct concepts of difference. (shrink)

Since the 1930’s, several attempts have been made to develop a general theory of technical systems or objects and their evolution: in France, Jacques Lafitte, André Leroi-Gourhan, Bertrand Gille, Yves Deforge, and Gilbert Simondon are the main representatives of this trend. In this paper, we focus on the work of Simondon: his analysis of technical progress is based on the hypothesis that technology has its own laws and that customer demand has no paramount influence upon the evolution (...) of technical systems. We first describe the process Simondon called “concretization” and compare it with the process of “idealization” as defined by Genrich Altshuller. We then explain how the progress of technical lineages can be characterized as following a specific rhythm of relaxation and how it thus obeys a “law” of evolution in the industrial context. Simondon’s theoretical approach, although similar to some aspects of methodologies of conception, emphasized a more accurate understanding of technical progress over possible operational applications. Simondon never intended to optimize the engineer’s tasks from an economic point of view and, in fact, his conception of technical progress can be considered as independent from the capitalistic trend of innovation. However, the philosophy of Simondon provides a better understanding of what is at stake theoretically in the modeling of laws of technical evolution. (shrink)

Since the 1930’s, several attempts have been made to develop a general theory of technical systems or objects and their evolution: in France, Jacques Lafitte, André Leroi-Gourhan, Bertrand Gille, Yves Deforge, and Gilbert Simondon are the main representatives of this trend. In this paper, we focus on the work of Simondon: his analysis of technical progress is based on the hypothesis that technology has its own laws and that customer demand has no paramount influence upon the evolution (...) of technical systems. We first describe the process Simondon called “concretization” and compare it with the process of “idealization” as defined by Genrich Altshuller. We then explain how the progress of technical lineages can be characterized as following a specific rhythm of relaxation and how it thus obeys a “law” of evolution in the industrial context. Simondon’s theoretical approach, although similar to some aspects of methodologies of conception, emphasized a more accurate understanding of technical progress over possible operational applications. Simondon never intended to optimize the engineer’s tasks from an economic point of view and, in fact, his conception of technical progress can be considered as independent from the capitalistic trend of innovation. However, the philosophy of Simondon provides a better understanding of what is at stake theoretically in the modeling of laws of technical evolution. (shrink)

This article will maintain that the onset of Simondon’s interest in the philosophy of Nature, examined in his thèse principale, “L’individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information” and for philosophy of technics, analysed in his thèse complémentaire, “Du mode d’existence des objets techniques”, lies in his personal acquaintance with Canguilhem and in particular the reading of his Knowledge of Life, published in 1952. I will demonstrate that the element connecting Simondon’s interest in individuality and his (...) interest in the philosophy of technics can be found in the influence of the following Canguilhemian subjects: 1) the role of vitalist anti-reductionism; 2) the necessity to inaugurate a “biological philosophy of technics”; and 3) the understanding of the concept of milieu in relation to individuality. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 La filosofía de Simondon esboza, sobre la base de las ciencias de su época, una nueva metafísica de la naturaleza que engloba los niveles materiales, orgánicos y antropomórficos. El concepto de naturaleza es objeto de una profunda renovación en ella. La naturaleza ya no aparece como un conjunto de cosas hechas, definidas eternamente por su esencia. Ella es más bien la invención de procesos de individuación encajados los unos en los otros, y (...) los cuales forman tantas dimensiones diferentes. Contrariamente al reduccionismo fisicalista que traza un mismo plano físico y determinista para todas las cosas, la naturaleza aparece en Simondon como multidimensional e inventiva. El conocimiento y la ética también son modificados por una concepción tal de la naturaleza: nosotros no conocemos y no actuamos más que participando en la naturaleza. Esta metafísica de la naturaleza es también una teoría renovada de la Participación. No estamos jamás en superposición, separados de las cosas, sino que participamos con nuestro conocimiento y nuestra acción en el movimiento íntimo de la naturaleza, en la resonancia que se establece entre sus diferentes dimensiones. (shrink)

The article explores the proximity between Simondon’s philosophical project and phenomenology through his relation to Merleau-Ponty. Three concepts that link the two philosophers are examined: genesis, relation, and Simondon’s preindividual, which are shown to constitute an attempt to answer questions Merleau-Ponty was addressing in his later work. The article shows how Simondon’s argument for ontogenesis rather than ontology is related to Merleau-Ponty’s ontological project, which in turn originates in the latter’s reading of Husserl, particularly the interest in (...) genetic phenomenology expressed as early as the Phenomenology of Perception. It then shows that the radical notion of relation employed by Simondon responds to problems Merleau-Ponty had encountered in thinking the corps propre and the chiasm. The paper then discusses the link between Merleau-Ponty’s thinking of the flesh and Simondon’s concept of preindividual. By confronting these two bodies of work, the article suggests that phenomenology is an important starting point for Simondon. (shrink)

Two key themes structure the work of French philosopher of science Gilbert Simondon: the processes of individuation and the nature of technical objects. Moreover, these two themes are also at the heart of contemporary debates within Ethics and Bioethics. Indeed, the question of the individual is a key concern in both Virtue Ethics and Feminist Ethics of Care, while the hyper-technical reality of the present stage of medical technology is a key reason for both the urgency for and (...) the success of the field of Bioethics. And yet, despite its potential for thinking about these issues, Simondon’s philosophy remains largely unknown. Rather than exploring Simondon’s complex ontology for itself, the aim of this paper is to establish what contribution his work can make in Ethics and Bioethics on two essential questions: the relational structure of the self and the nature of the human-technology relation. I argue that Simondon’s re-conceptualization of the individual harmonizes with perspectives in Feminist Bioethics and points toward what I call an “open” Virtue Ethics that takes relations to be essential. In order to establish this connection, I explore at length the relational approach to Feminist Bioethics offered by Susan Sherwin’s work. I argue that a Simondonian account of technology and of the individual furthers the relational understanding of the self, offers a characterization of Virtue Ethics that is in harmony with the Ethics of Care, and clarifies a notion of responsibility that is implicated in the complex reality of the modern technological milieu. (shrink)

In this article, I examine the axiology of techniques in the environmentalist discourses of degrowth through the lens of French philosopher Gilbert Simondon. This fertile articulation shows, first, that degrowth discourses evaluate techniques only based on their uses; second, it explains why such an axiology, praxeological rather than technological, is unable to influence technical progress. Beginning with Simondon, I show in particular that degrowth thinking ignores the distinction between information and energy within technical realities. Yet, this distinction (...) is necessary if we wish to link the study of techniques and ecology in a constructive way. (shrink)

In recent years ‘bioart’ has been lauded in the social sciences for its creative engagements with the ontological stakes of new forms of biotechnical life in-the-making. In this paper I push further to explore the ontogenetic potentials of bioart-encounters to generate new capacities for thinking and perceiving the nonhuman agencies imbricated in the becoming of subjects. To explore this potential I stage an encounter with Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of individuation, highlighting three implications for theorizations of the constitution and (...) transformation of subjects. First, Simondon forces us to rethink the subject in terms of its transductive emergence from pre-individual processes, and its metastable susceptibility to ongoing transformations. Second, he substitutes voluntarist conceptions of thought with an involuntarist primacy of material encounters as the conditions for novel individuations. Finally, I argue that Simondon enables a thinking of the politics of the art-encounter in terms of its ontogenetic capacity to materially produce, rather than merely represent, new subjects and worlds. (shrink)

This essay undertakes a joint exploration of Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of individuation and Bill Viola’s video art to propose an ontogenetic model of ecology and a corresponding politic...

Este artigo trata de colocar em diálogo as filosofias de Hannah Arendt e Gilbert Simondon no que diz respeito à relação entre a natureza e a cultura. Contemporâneos, mas advindos de tradições distintas, os dois autores elaboraram filosofias preocupadas com a alienação da realidade humana em relação à progressiva transformação tecnológica. Enquanto Hannah Arendt associa o progresso da técnica com o advento do social e, com isso, o esvanecimento da política, Simondon considera que o estágio maquínico da (...) concretização dos objetos técnicos acentua uma crise da capacidade cultural humana de simbolizar a realidade. Diante da mesma crise, mas apontando aspectos diferentes, subjaz às suas respectivas abordagens duas maneiras distintas de pensar a relação entre a natureza e o mundo: se, para Arendt, duas temporalidades distintas circunscrevem os dois domínios, Simondon aponta para uma diferença de complexificação no qual o mesmo processo de individuação se desdobra. A partir disso, os autores divergem sobre o que está sendo perdido na crise contemporânea: Arendt aponta para a política; Simondon, para a cultura. (shrink)