Philosophy as political technē: The tradition of invention in Simondon’s political thought

Abstract

Gilbert Simondon has recently attracted the interest of political philosophers and theorists, despite he is rather renowned as a philosopher of technics -as the author of Of the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects -who also elaborated a general theory of complex systems in Individuation in the Light of the Notions of Form and Information. A group of scholars has developed Gilles Deleuze's early suggestion that Simondon's social ontology might offer the basis for a re-theorisation of radical democracy. Others, following Herbert Marcuse, have instead focused on Simondon's analysis of the relationship between technology and society. However, only a joint study of Simondon's two major works can reveal their implicit political stakes. As I will argue, Simondon's anti-Aristotelianism and his anti-Heideggerian understanding of the Greek origins of philosophy, allow us to conceive philosophical thought as a 'tradition of invention', that is, a pedagogical technē endowed with the political task of maintaining the openness of the social system and allowing normative invention to emerge from within.

Ethics in Jacques Lafitte’s Mechanology

“…However, Lafitte never outlined a process that might enable the internalization of external factors with the same level of detail as Simondon's elaboration of the relationship between the technical object and its milieu. Although not addressed by Simondon, there is also some common ground between the project for social transformation at the heart of mechanology and Simondon's interest in developing 'a political pedagogy of technicity' (Bardin, 2018). Yet there are significant differences in their understanding of how such social change might take place.…”

Bioética global, individuación y concretización técnica como aproximaciones a una “supervivencia aceptable” para la humanidad

“…En este contexto, el juicio técnico como lo hemos visto permitiría, en palabras de Bardin y Carrozzinni (2017), pasar de una acción movida por la productividad a la posibilidad de crear valores y resolver la relación entre lo humano y el mundo, pero para que esto se logre es necesario un conocimiento tecnológico. Desde la dialéctica de la recuperación, posible por el juicio técnico, es posible fortalecer procesos de feedback negativo y positivo (como lo vimos en el primer apartado) para poder amplificar los valores (Bardin 2018) que le permitan a la humanidad una interacción recíproca con los sistemas bióticos, abióticos y humanos. Así, el juicio técnico deviene una herramienta necesaria para lograr esta supervivencia a largo plazo que Potter buscaba.…”

Simondon (novo)materialismo? Um movimento para além do pensamento político moderno

“…Desde essa perspectiva, não é possível ter qualquer expectativa de uma solução definitiva, 'neutra' , para os problemas políticos, isso porque a própria teoria está mergulhada em um conjunto complexo de normatividades que minam qualquer possibilidade de uma estrita distinção entre teoria e práxis. Na realidade, o próprio 'pensamento filosófico' é, para Simondon, um tipo específico de tékhne política de invenção de normatividades, função que não pode ser compreendida sem levar em conta suas relações particulares com a técnica e, mormente, com a função reguladora da cultura no interior dos sistemas sociais (Bardin, 2018).…”