Table of Contents
Volume I
Publisher's Note xiii
Foreword: Introduction to the Problematic of Gilbert Simondon Jacques Garelli xv
Introduction 1
Part I Physical Individuation
1 Form and Matter 21
Foundations of the Hylomorphic Schema: Technology of Form-Taking 21
The Conditions of Individuation 21
Validity of the Hylomorphic Schema; the Dark Zone of the Hylomorphic Schema; Generalization of the Notion of Form-Taking; Modeling, Molding, Modulation 29
Limits of the Hylomorphic Schema 32
Physical Signification of Technical Form-Taking 37
Physical Conditions of Technical Form-Taking 37
Qualities and Implicit Physical Forms 41
Hylomorphic Ambivalence 43
The Two Aspects of Individuation 47
Reality and Relativity of the Foundation of Individuation 47
The Energetic Foundation of Individuation: Individuation and Milieu 51
2 Form and Energy 55
Structures and Potential Energy 55
The Potential Energy and the Reality of the System; Equivalence of Potential Energies; Dissymmetry and Energetic Exchanges 55
Different Orders of Potential Energy; Notions of Phase Changes and of the Stable and Metastable Equilibrium of a State. Tammann's Theory 61
Individuation and System States 68
Individuation and Crystalline Allotropic Forms; Being and Relation 68
Individuation as the Genesis of Crystalline Forms Starting from an Amorphous State 77
Epistemological Consequences: Reality of Relation and the Notion of Substance 88
3 Form and Substance 95
Continuous and Discontinuous 95
Functional Role of Discontinuity 95
The Antinomy of the Continuous and the Discontinuous 98
The Analogical Method 100
Particle and Energy 110
Substantialism and Energeticism 110
The Deductive Process 112
The Inductive Process 122
The Non-substantial Individual: Information and Compatibility 126
Relativistic Conception and the Notion of Physical Individuation 126
Quantum Theory; Notion of the Elementary Physical Operation That Integrates the Complementary Aspects of the Continuous and the Discontinuous 135
The Theory of the Double Solution in Wave Mechanics Topology, Chronology and Order of Magnitude of Physical Individuation 149
Part II The Individuation of Living Beings
1 Information and Ontogenesis: Vital Individuation 167
Principles toward a Study of the Individuation of the Living Being 167
Information and Vital Individuation; Levels of Organization; Vital Activity and Psychical Activity 167
Successive Levels of Individuation: Vital, Psychical, Transindividual 177
Specific Form and Living Substance 180
Insufficiency of the Notion of Specific Form; Notion of the Pure Individual; Non-univocal Nature of the Notion of the Individual 180
The Individual as Polarity; Functions of Internal Genesis and of External Genesis 185
Individuation and Reproduction 188
Undifferentiation and Dedifferentation as Conditions of Reproductive Individuality 199
Information and Vital Individuation 208
Individuation and Regimes of Information 208
Regimes of Information and Rapports between Individuals 215
Individuation, Information, and the Structure of the Individual 221
Information and Ontogenesis 225
Notion of an Ontogenetic Problematic 225
Individuation and Adaptation 231
Limits of the Individuation of the Living. Central Characteristic of the Being. Nature of the Collective 236
From Information to Signification 244
2 Psychical Individuation 257
Signification and the Individuation of Perceptive Units 257
Segregation of Perceptive Units; the Genetic Theory and the Theory of Holistic Grasping; Determinism of Good Form 257
Psychical Tension and Degrees of Metastability. Good Form and Geometrical Form; the Different Types of Equilibrium 260
Relation between the Segregation of Perceptive Units and the Other Types of Individuation. Metastability and Information Theory in Technology and Psychology 261
Introduction of the Notion of Quantum Variation into the Representation of Psychical Individuation 264
The Perceptive Problematic; Quantity of Information, Quality of Information, Intensity of Information 265
Individuation and Affectivity 272
Consciousness and Individuation; the Quantum Nature of Consciousness 272
Signification of Affective Subconsciousness 273
Affectivity in Communication and Expression 274
The Transindividual 277
Anxiety 282
The Affective Problematic: Affection and Emotion 285
Psychical Individuation and the Problematic of Ontogenesis 291
Signification as Criterion of Individuation 291
The Relation to the Milieu 295
Individuation, Individualization, and Personalization. Bi-substantialism 296
Insufficiency of the Notion of Adaptation to Explain
Psychical Individuation 304
The Problematic of Reflexivity in Individuation 308
The Necessity of Psychical Ontogenesis 319
3 Collective Individuation and the Foundations of the Transindividual 327
The Individual and the Social, Group Individuation 327
Social Time and Individual Time 327
Interiority Groups and Exteriority Groups 328
Social Reality as a System of Relations 330
Insufficiency of the Notion of the Essence of Man and of Anthropology 332
Notion of Group Individual 334
Role of Belief in the Group Individual 335
Group Individuation and Vital Individuation 336
Pre-individual Reality and Spiritual Reality: The Phases of Being 341
The Collective as Condition of Signification 344
Subjectivity and Signification; the Transindividual Character of Signification 344
Subject and Individual 348
The Empirical and the Transcendental. Ontogenesis and Pre-critical Ontology The Collective as Signification That Overcomes a Disparation 349
The Central Operational Zone of the Transindividual: Theory of Emotion 350
Conclusion 356
Notes 381
Bibliography 397
Volume II Supplemental Texts
Publisher's Note xiii
Complementary Note on the Consequences of the Notion of Individuatio 401
1 Values and the Search for Objectivity 403
Relative Values and Absolute Values 403
The Dark Zone between the Substantialism of the Individual and Integration into the Group 405
The Problematic of and Search for Compatibility 407
Conscience and Ethical Individuation 408
Ethics and the Process of Individuation 409
2 Individuation and Invention 412
The Technician as Pure Individual 412
The Technical Operation as a Condition of Individuation.
Invention and Autonomy; Community and Technical Transindividual Relation 413
Individuation of the Products of Human Effort 418
The Individuating Attitude in the Human Relation to the Invented Technical Being 423
Attagmatic Nature of the Individuated Technical Object 428
History of the Notion of the Individual 435
Supplements
Analysis of the Criteria of Individuality 655
Allagmatics 663
Form, Information, and Potentials 674
Notes 701
