Gilbert Simondon


Gilbert Simondon was a French philosopher best known for his theory of individuation and his work on the field of philosophy of technology. Simondon's work is characterized by his philosophical approach on information theory, communication studies, technology and the natural sciences. Although largely overlooked in his lifetime, the advent of the Information Age has resulted in a reappraisal and increased interest in Simondon's books. He is now seen as someone who precisely predicted and described the social effects and 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 Saint-Étienne, Simondon was a student of philosopher of science Georges Canguilhem, philosopher Martial Guéroult, and phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He studied at the 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, was published in two parts, the first in 1964 under the title L'individu et sa génèse physico-biologique at the Presses Universitaires de France, although the second part, L'individuation psychique et collective 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 was published by Aubier immediately after being completed 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.

Thought

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 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 individuation through transduction in a metastable environment was an important influence on the thought of Gilles Deleuze, whose Différence et répétition, Logique du sens
 and L'île déserte make explicit reference to Simondon's work. Gilbert Simondon: une pensée de l'individuation et de la technique, 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. 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. 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.

Further viewing

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