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Home , Gilbert Simondon, Justin Clemens

Edited by Arne De Boever, Alex Murray, Jon Roffe and Ashley Woodward

Gilbert SimondoN Being and

Gilbert Simondon

Being and Technology

Edited by Arne De Boever, Alex Murray, Jon Roffe and Ashley Woodward

DDee BBOEVEROEVER PRINT.inddPRINT.indd i 006/12/20116/12/2011 14:2614:26 © editorial matter and organization Arne De Boever, Alex Murray, Jon Roffe and Ashley Woodward, 2012 © the chapters their several authors

Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh

www.euppublishing.com

Typeset in 10.5/13 pt Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

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ISBN 978 0 7486 4525 1 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 4525 1 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 0 7486 5079 8 (epub) ISBN 978 0 7486 5078 1 (Amazon ebook)

The right of the contributors to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

Abbreviations v Editors’ Introduction: Simondon, Finally vii Arne De Boever, Alex Murray, Jon Roffe and Ashley Woodward

1. Technical Mentality 1 Gilbert Simondon, translated by Arne De Boever

Explications 2. ‘Technical Mentality’ Revisited: on Gilbert Simondon 19 With Arne De Boever, Alex Murray and Jon Roffe 3. Identity and : Some Feminist Refl ections 37 Elizabeth Grosz 4. Crystals and Membranes: Individuation and Temporality 57 Anne Sauvagnargues, translated by Jon Roffe

Implications 5. The Question of Anxiety in Gilbert Simondon 73 Igor Krtolica, translated by Jon Roffe 6. Infra-Psychic Individualization: Transductive Connections and the Genesis of Living Techniques 92 Marie-Pier Boucher 7. ‘Du mort qui saisit le vif’: Simondonian Ontology Today 110 Jean-Hugues Barthélémy, translated by 8. The of Gilbert Simondon: Anticipation of the Contemporary Aesthetic Experience 121 Yves Michaud, translated by Justin Clemens

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Resonances 9. , a Reader of Gilbert Simondon 135 Sean Bowden 10. Science and Ontology: From Merleau-Ponty’s ‘Reduction’ to Simondon’s ‘Transduction’ 154 Miguel de Beistegui 11. The Question of the Individual in and Gilbert Simondon 176 Dominique Lecourt, translated by Arne De Boever 12. The Theatre of Individuation: Phase-Shift and Resolution in Simondon and Heidegger 185 , translated by Kristina Lebedeva

Glossary: Fifty Key Terms in the Works of Gilbert Simondon 203 Jean-Hugues Barthélémy, translated by Arne De Boever

Notes on Contributors 232

Index 235

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Abbreviations

Abbreviations used to refer to Simondon’s published works

CI et [Communication and Information] (Chatou: Editions de la Transparence, 2010) (collection of texts) CSI ‘Cours sur l’instinct’ [Course on Instinct], in Simondon, CI (see above) CSP Cours sur la perception [Course on Perception] (Chatou: Editions de la Transparence, 2005) (course from 1964 to 1965) FIP ‘Forme, information, potentiel’ [Form, Information, Potential] (lecture from 1960, added by the publisher), in Simondon, ILFI and IPC (see below) HNI ‘Histoire de la notion d’individu’ [History of the Notion of the Individual] (text added by the publisher), in Simondon, ILFI (see below) IGPB L’Individu et sa genèse physico-biologique [The Individual and its Physico-Biological Genesis] (Grenoble: Jérôme Millon, 1995) (this book contains the fi rst two-thirds of ILFI, as well as its introduction and conclusion) ILFI L’Individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information [Individuation in Light of the Notions of Form and Information] (Grenoble: Jérôme Millon, 2005) (Simondon’s main thesis for the Doctorat d’Etat, written between 1954 and 1958) IMIN Imagination et invention [Imagination and Invention] (Chatou: Editions de la Transparence, 2008) (course from 1965 to 1966) IPC L’Individuation psychique et collective [Psychic and Collective Individuation] (Paris: Aubier, 1989 and 2007) (this book

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contains the last third of ILFI, as well as its introduction and conclusion) IT L’Invention dans les techniques [Invention in Technics] (Paris: Seuil, 2006) (collection of texts) MEOT Du mode d’existence des objets techniques [On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects] (Paris: Aubier, 1958) (Simondon’s secondary thesis for the Doctorat d’Etat, written between 1954 and 1958) MT ‘Mentalité technique’ [Technical Mentality], Revue philos- ophique de la France et de l’Etranger, 3 (Paris: PUF, 2006) NC ‘Note complémentaire sur les conséquences de la notion d’individuation’ [Additional Note on the Consequences of the Notion of Individuation] (text added by the publisher), in Simondon, ILFI and IPC (see above)

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Editors’ Introduction: Simondon, Finally

Arne De Boever, Alex Murray, Jon Roffe and Ashley Woodward

Gilbert Simondon: Being and Technology is the fi rst book in English dedicated entirely to the work of this French . Although the importance of Simondon’s thought for twentieth- and twenty- fi rst-century is clear – his work is foundational for Gilles Deleuze and Bernard Stiegler, and resonates in the writings of prominent thinkers, such as , , and Roberto Esposito – relatively little attention has been paid to Simondon in the English-speaking academy. The few schol- ars writing about Simondon in English who have contributed to this collection – Brian Massumi, Elizabeth Grosz and Miguel de Beistegui, amongst others – are, next to some not included here (, and for example), the exceptions that confi rm the rule. Born in 1924, Gilbert Simondon was a doctoral student of both the French philosopher and physician Georges Canguilhem and the French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. By 1958, he had fi nished both his main thesis, L’Individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et de l’information [Individuation in Light of the Notions of Form and Information], and his supplementary thesis, Du mode d’existence des objets techniques (On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects), for the French doctoral degree. While Du mode d’existence was immedi- ately published in France and quickly turned into an infl uential book, it would take until 1964 for the fi rst part of Simondon’s main thesis to be published. This text was later republished in 1995. The second part of the thesis, on which the forthcoming English translation Psychic and Collective Individuation is based,1 was not published until 1989, the year of Simondon’s death. This part was later republished in 2007. Due to a rising interest in Simondon’s work in recent years, a number of other (French) volumes have begun to appear, including a collection

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of texts on ‘communication and information’ and Simondon’s 1964–5 course on ‘perception’, as well as the course on ‘imagination and inven- tion’ and the collection of texts on ‘invention and technics’. With the English translation of Du mode d’existence and the second part of Simondon’s thesis well under way,2 the early twenty-fi rst century inter- est in Simondon is taking off in the English-speaking world, and the fact that translations into German, Russian, Korean, Italian and several other languages are in progress suggests a quickly growing interest in Simondon worldwide. This book developed out of the fi rst English-language special journal issue – published by Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy – dedicated entirely to this important thinker.3 The dearth of English- language criticism on Simondon is no doubt largely due to a lack of English translations of Simondon’s writings,4 and it was on the occa- sion of the forthcoming publication of the translation of Simondon’s Psychic and Collective Individuation and On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects that Parrhesia decided to put together a special issue on Simondon’s work. Several of the features, articles and inter- views that were published in Parrhesia’s special issue are reproduced here with only minor modifi cations. However, this book has also been expanded signifi cantly with several other contributions from emerging and established scholars of Simondon’s work. Gilbert Simondon: Being and Technology thus hopes to contribute further to English-language scholarship on Simondon, and function as a guide as this scholarship continues to expand. As well as (somewhat playfully) alluding to some of the major texts of twentieth-century philosophy (by , Jean-Paul Sartre and ), the subtitle of this book has been chosen to refl ect the two topics central to Simondon’s philosophy: ontology and technol- ogy. Scholars have also suggested that the fi eld of psychology and the human sciences should be added as a third area of investigation. (In fact, Simondon was elected to the chair in psychology at the Sorbonne in 1963.) Although the latter is also represented here – Marie-Pier Boucher and Dominique Lecourt’s contributions, for example, refl ect on this – the book’s main areas of interest are, as its subtitle indicates, ‘being’ and ‘technology’. The notions of ontogenesis, individuation (a near-synonym for ontogenesis, as Barthélémy explains in his glossary) and technics (which is not exactly technology) are thus central to this book’s project. By gathering contributions that address all these areas of Simondon’s thought, the book ultimately hopes to stimulate refl ection on how these different elements of Simondon’s philosophy fi t together.

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As a whole, this book aims to introduce readers to Simondon’s thought, as well as pursue some of its implications for contemporary philosophy. It includes an important piece of Simondon’s own work: his text ‘Technical Mentality’, which was published in English for the fi rst time in Parrhesia’s special issue. Because of the highly technical of Simondon’s thought, as well as the intricacies of his writing, this book includes a number of contributions that help to explain Simondon to the reader (‘Explications’). This fi rst section of the book begins with an interview with Brian Massumi which aids a reading of ‘Technical Mentality’, while helping to locate Simondon in the con- temporary theoretical scene. It then follows with an explanation of his theory of individuation and its practical import for feminism and political thought in general (Grosz), before further clarifying this theory by way of an examination of his discussion of crystals and membranes as models for individuation (Sauvagnargues). In an attempt to think not simply with but also after Simondon, the book also explores the ‘Implications’ of Simondon’s thought for contemporary philosophical refl ection about anxiety, science, technology and aesthetics (Krtolica, Boucher, Barthélémy, Michaud). In addition, several of the contribu- tions in the book explore the ‘Resonances’ of Simondon’s thought in the work of other thinkers: Deleuze (Bowden), Maurice Merleau-Ponty (de Beistegui), Georges Canguilhem (Lecourt) and Martin Heidegger (Stiegler). The book also includes an extensive glossary by Jean-Hugues Barthélémy, one of the most important Simondon scholars working in France today, which explains fi fty key notions in Simondon’s work. Importantly, the works referenced in this glossary include not only those works by Simondon that are soon to appear in English, but also all of Simondon’s published works. Thus, the glossary provides something like a ‘legend’ to the map of Simondon’s thought that this book lays out. As is the case with several of the other texts that are collected here, the glossary extends beyond the immediate scope of this book by helping the reader to situate Psychic and Collective Individuation and On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects in relation to Simondon’s numer- ous other publications, many of which will hopefully one day become available in English as well. We cannot conclude our introduction before briefl y considering the questions, Why Simondon?, and more specifi cally, Why Simondon today? Both Brian Massumi and Elizabeth Grosz address these ques- tions directly in their chapters, but we may briefl y indicate the follow- ing. Simondon is a philosopher of technology whose works anticipate

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in fascinating ways the subsequent developments of the technical world with which we are now dealing, such as the internet, and of information and communication more generally.5 Simondon’s origi- nality as a philosopher of technology is indicated, fi rst, by his critical rejection of and attempt to formulate an alternative perspec- tive, and second, his inscription of this theory of the nature of technical objects within a highly original, generalized ontology. This ontology describes the emergence and individuation of beings as such, delineating technical objects in terms of both their commonalities with and their differences from other types of beings. Simondon provides a theory of being that is signifi cantly inspired by the natural sciences; as Simondon’s close relation to Canguilhem might suggest, his work establishes a bridge between philosophy and the sciences. Heavily infl uenced by developments in physics in his time, Simondon found himself – like his teacher Canguilhem, and like Canguilhem’s own teacher – in between these two disciplines. Simondon’s ontology, which in its positive orientation towards the sciences was signifi cantly at odds with Heidegger, was also an important inspiration to Deleuze. For these reasons, Simondon must be read as an interesting philosopher of technology and an ontologist in his own right, while also being situated at a number of historically sig- nifi cant points of contact with other major developments in twentieth- century thought. More than this, however, Simondon’s work is of particular value for the currents of thought now developing in the early twenty-fi rst century. As Massumi and Grosz both note, over the last decades intellectual currents in the humanities have shifted from a context unreceptive to Simondonian thought to one in which the moment seems ripe for his (re)discovery. As Massumi glosses this, it has entailed a move from the prevailing acceptance of ‘constructivism’ to what he calls ‘inven- tivism’. While constructivism focuses on the cultural construction of reality while remaining sceptical towards the claims of the natural sci- ences, inventivism seeks to think the natural processes involved in any and all constructions. Grosz suggests that constructivism (which she associates with and poststructuralism) was a necessary corrective to essentialist forms of thought, but one which overcompen- sated. Moreover, contemporary philosophical thought is increasingly engaged in explicitly ontological investigations. In the wake of Deleuze, philosophers like Badiou, and certain strains of speculative realist thought have once again posed the goal of thinking in terms of being. In this regard too, the arc of contemporary thought has

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brought it back into the terrain mapped out in such a powerful way by Simondon himself. We are now in a position to think in a more balanced way the rela- tion between the processes which have previously been designated the natural and the cultural, and perhaps, with Simondon, to question this distinction itself. Fighting relentlessly against the classical oppositions of the vital to the mechanical, Simondon always tried to think further than what the traditional delimitations of disciplines allowed. This is, no doubt, part of the reason why his thought has proved to be so extraordi- narily stimulating for the writers who have contributed to this volume, and which we hope it will also prove to be for its readers. As famously suggested, some people are born posthumously.6 In our view, contemporary coordinates suggest that the time is right for Simondon’s (second) ‘birth’.

NOTES 1. This translation is forthcoming with the University of Minnesota Press. 2. This translation is forthcoming with Semiotext(e). 3. The special issue is available at: http://www.parrhesiajournal.org/past.html# issue07. 4. To our knowledge, excerpts from Simondon’s work have previously been published in English in: Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter (eds), Incorporations (New York: Zone, 1992), Joke Brouwer and Arjen Mulder (eds), Interact or Die! (Rotterdam: V2_, 2007) and Parrhesia. 5. In addition to the chapters by Massumi and Grosz, see Henning Schmidgen, ‘Thinking Technological and Biological Beings: Gilbert Simondon’s Philosophy of Machines’, Revista do Departamento de Psicologia – UFF, 17.2 (2005), pp. 11–18 (www.scielo.br/pdf/rdpsi/v17n2/v17n2a02.pdf). 6. Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘Preface’ to The Anti-Christ, in Aaron Ridley (ed.), Judith Norman (trans.), The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 3.

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