Simondon on Ontogenesis

Gilbert Simondon (1924–1989) was a French philosopher best known for his theory of "individuation" and his influence on thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze and Bernard Stiegler.

"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." [source]

I have been putting off reading Simondon because he seems like one of those authors who had already articulated ideas that have been percolating in my brain for some time now. I always try as much as possible to avoid being 'contaminated' by the formulations of others before I work out my own thoughts on particular philosophical issues. However as Simondon's work continues to be translated, and as I keep encountering his ideas in various settings, I think its time for me to begin swimming upstream in that river.

I begin with this essay by Simondon in which he attempts to lay the conceptual groundwork for a wider understanding of how individuals come to be in the world:

The Position of the Problem of Ontogenesis
By Gilbert Simondon

The reality of being as an individual may be approached in two ways: either via a substantialist path whereby being is considered as consistent in its unity, given to itself, founded upon itself, not created, resistant to that which it is not; or via a hylomorphic path, whereby the individual is considered to be created by the coming together of form and matter. The self-centered monism of substantialism is opposed to the bipolarity of the hylomorphic schema.

However, there is something that these two approaches to the reality of the individual have in common: both presuppose the existence of a principle of individuation that is anterior to the individuation itself, one that may be used to explain, produce, and conduct this individuation. Starting from the constituted and given individual, an attempt is made to step back to the conditions of its existence. This manner of posing the problem of individuation--starting from the observation of the existence of individuals--conceals a presupposition that must be examined, because it entails an important aspect for the proposed solutions and slips into the search for the principle of individuation. It is the individual, as a constituted individual, that is the interesting reality, the reality that must be explained.

The principle of individuation will be sought as a principle capable of explaining the characteristics of the individual, without a necessary relation to other aspects of being that could be correlatives of the appearance of an individuated reality. Such a research perspective gives an ontological privilege to the constituted individual. It therefore runs the risk of not producing a true ontogenesis--that is, of not placing the individual into the system of reality in which the individuation occurs.

Read More (PDF) @ Parrhesia

From Fractal Ontology:

In his review [of Simondon's L’individu et sa genèse physico-biologique], Deleuze stresses that Simondon articulates a rigorous distinction between individuality and singularity due to an examination of the principle of individuation. Simondon begins with the problem of inferring a principle of individuation because current schools of thought tend to view the individual as a given. This confers an ontological privilege to an already constructed individual. But Simondon sees this view as a backwards approach, or what he terms reverse ontogenesis. In fact, because Simondon believes that individuation is merely one stage in the becoming of a being and thus is not the totality of a being, individuality falsely attributes a unity and identity to a heterogeneous milieu of forces from which the pre-individual nature of a being enters into communication with another order of magnitude. Thus, instead of focusing on the individual in order to infer the principle of individuation, Simondon asserts from the beginning that his project is to understand the individual in terms of individuation, which can be considered now as ontogenesis itself. (Taylor Atkins)

Fractal Ontology also has a short list of key concepts here - along with a few translations and several post about Simondon's work.

I'll update with my own notes as my thoughts begin to congregate on this material.