Gilbert Simondon

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Gilbert Simondon
20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolContinental philosophy
Philosophy of technology
InstitutionsUniversity of Poitiers
University of Tours
University of Lyon
University of Paris
Theses
  • L'Individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information (Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information) (1958)
  • Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (On The Mode of Existence of Technical Objects) (1958)
philosophy of nature, philosophy of science, epistemology, technology, psychology, physics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, hydraulics, chemistry, biology, crystallography, mechanics, electronics, architecture, religion, ethics, aesthetics
Notable ideas
Individuation
Transduction[citation needed]
Allagmatics
Metastability
Abstract and Concrete Technical Objects
Open and Closed Systems
Minor and Major Technics
Techno-Aesthetics


Gilbert Simondon (French:

paradigms
technical objects and technology itself have offered in the 21st century.

Despite Simondon's thought having remained largely alienated amidst the effervescent wave of post-structuralism of his age in his homeland of France and Europe in general, a few colleagues have been pioneers in praising Simondon's writings and demonstrating the influence and weight of his intellectual work in their own, the most notable being Gilles Deleuze, whose The Logic of Sense is heavily influenced by Simondon's theory of individuation, and Herbert Marcuse, who takes inspiration from Simondon's notions of the effects of technological alienation in society in his book One-Dimensional Man. Today, Simondon's work influence can most clearly be seen in the works of Bruno Latour, Bernard Stiegler and Yuk Hui.

Career

Born in

Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Sorbonne. He defended his doctoral dissertations in 1958 at the University of Paris. 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, although the second part, L'individuation psychique et collective (Psychic and collective individuation) was only published by Aubier in 1989. 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.

Individuation and technology

In L'individuation psychique et collective, Simondon developed a theory of individual and collective

subject is considered as an effect of individuation, rather than as a cause. Thus the individual atom is replaced by the never-ending process of individuation. Simondon also conceived of "pre-individual fields" as the resources making individuation itself possible. Individuation is an always incomplete process, always leaving a "pre-individual" left-over, itself making possible future individuations. Furthermore, psychic individuation always creates both an individual and a collective subject, which individuate themselves together. 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.

Influence

Simondon's theory of

metastable environment was an important influence on the thought of Gilles Deleuze, whose Différence et répétition
(1968), Logique du sens (1969) and L'île déserte (2002) make explicit reference to Simondon's work. Gilbert Simondon: une pensée de l'individuation et de la technique (1994), the proceedings of the first conference devoted to Simondon's work, further charts his influence on thinkers such as François Laruelle, Gilles Châtelet, Anne Fagot-Largeau, Yves Deforge, René Thom, and Bernard Stiegler (the latter having placed Simondon's theory of individuation at the very heart of his multi-volume philosophical project). Another contributor to Gilbert Simondon: une pensée de l'individuation et de la technique, Simondon's friend John Hart, was the instigator of the very first translation—from French into English c.1980—of Simondon's work (this at University of Western Ontario in Canada where Hart had founded both a Department of Computer Science and a Simondon-inspired network: the ATN, or Audio Tactile Network in 1964[1]). Jean-Hugues Barthélémy edited the Cahiers Simondon from 2009 to 2015 with a total of six issues. Currently, Simondon can be seen as a major influence on the work of scholars such as Paolo Virno, Jean-Hugues Barthélémy, Thierry Bardini, Luciana Parisi, Brian Massumi, Adrian Mackenzie, Muriel Combes, Carl Mitcham, Andrew Feenberg, Yuk Hui, Isabelle Stengers, Thomas LaMarre, Bruno Latour and Anne Sauvagnargues.

Bibliography

  • Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (Méot, 1958; second ed. Paris: Aubier, 1989).[2]
  • 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).[3]
  • L'individuation psychique et collective[4](Paris, Aubier, 1989; reprinted in 2007 with a preface by Bernard Stiegler).

Posthumous publications

  • L’Invention dans les techniques, Cours et conferences (Éd. du Seuil, coll. "Traces écrites").[5]
  • L’Individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information (Jérôme Millon, coll. Krisis, 2005).[6]
  • Cours sur la perception (1964–1965), Préface de Renaud Barbaras (Editions de La Transparence).[7]
  • Imagination et invention (1965–1966) (Editions de La Transparence, 2008).[8]
  • Communication et Information. Cours et Conférences (Éditions de La Transparence, 2010).[9]
  • Sur la technique (P.U.F., 2014).
  • Sur la psychologie (P.U.F., 2015).
  • Sur la philosophie (P.U.F., 2016).
  • La résolution des problèmes (P.U.F., 2018).

English translations

  • "Technical Mentality," trans. Arne De Boever, Parrhesia 07 (2009): 7–27 [1] Archived 20 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  • "Techno Aesthetics," trans. Arne De Boever, Parrhesia 14 (2012): 1–8 [2].
  • "Technical Individualization," in Joke Brouwer & Arjen Mulder (eds.), Interact or Die! (Rotterdam: NAi, 2007).
  • "The Essence of Technicity," trans. Ninian Mellamphy, Dan Mellamphy & Nandita Biswas Mellamphy, Deleuze Studies 5 (11.11.2011): 406–424,[2].
  • "The Genesis of the Individual," in Jonathan Crary & Sanford Kwinter (eds.), Incorporations (New York: Zone Books, 1992): 297–319.
  • "The Position of the Problem of Ontogenesis," trans. Gregory Flanders, Parrhesia 07 (2009): 4–16. [3] Archived 20 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  • "The Limits of Human Progress," trans Sean Cubitt, Cultural Politics, 8(2) (2010): 229–36.Cultural Politics, 8(2) (2010): 229–36
  • Two Lessons on Animal and Man (Minneapolis: Univocal Publishing, 2012) [4].
  • On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects (Minneapolis: Univocal Publishing, 2016) [5].
  • Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020)[6]
  • Also see the
    Online translations
    section (below) for unpublished translations.

References

  1. ^ Mark Hayward and Ghislain Thibault, 'Machinic Milieus: Simondon, John Hart and Mechanology', From Disability History Newsletter, Fall 2013
  2. OCLC 410239717
    .
  3. .
  4. ^ Simondon, Gilbert. "L'Individuation psychique et collective de Gilbert Simondon – Editions Flammarion". editions.flammarion.com (in French). Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  5. OCLC 420272615
    .
  6. .
  7. .
  8. .
  9. .

Further reading

Films François Lagarde and Pascal Chabot have made a movie on Simondon: Simondon of the Desert (english translation) with Anne Fagot-Largeault, Arne De Boever, Dominique Lecourt, Gilbert Hottois, Giovanni Carrozzini, Jean-Hugues Barthélémy, Jean Clottes, and music by Jean-Luc Guillonet.

External links

Online translations

  • Save the Technical Object, link to PDF file of unpublished 2013 translation.
  • MEOT / METO, link to PDF file of unpublished 2010 translation.
  • Also see the
    English translations
    section (above) for published translations.

Other links