Techno-symbolic individuation: Simondon, Stiegler and the politics of pharmakon

The relevance of this article stems from the profound crisis of meaning in the digital age, when algorithmic platforms and artificial neural networks, on the one hand, radically accelerate communication, and on the other, provoke increased social disunity, cognitive distortions, and the loss of symbolic reference points. This paradox requires an adequate philosophical understanding that goes beyond a simple critique of technology. The novelty of this study lies in its synthesis of Gilbert Simondon's philosophy of technology and Bernard Stiegler's concept of the "pharmakon" to develop a project of techno-symbolic individuation. The article demonstrates that the original "magical unity" of technology and symbol, described by Simondon, is key to understanding the contemporary schism, while Stiegler's "general organology" allows us to rethink it as a political problem of controlling the process of individuation. The research methodology is based on a synthesis of comparative analysis and the conceptual integration of Simondon and Stiegler's philosophies of technology. A genetic-structural reconstruction of the development of their ideas and a contextual analysis of intellectual traditions are applied. A problem-oriented approach allows us to identify the heuristic potential of the synthesis for critiquing digital reality, while hermeneutic interpretation ensures authentic readings of texts. A specially developed method of pharmacological diagnostics is applied to analyze the dual nature of modern technologies. Methodological pluralism aims to create a holistic analytical model of techno-symbolic individuation. At the same time, the study reveals the heuristic potential of the proposed synthesis for rethinking the very materiality of the digital environment. If Simondon revealed the techno-symbolic nature of the human, demonstrating that the "prosthesis" has always been both an organ and a sign, then Stiegler, with his "organological" approach, allows us to understand modern algorithmic systems as active actors in the process of transindividuation. The article argues that platforms and neural networks are not simply tools, but new pre-individual environments that, like Simondonian "magic," structure the very possibility of perception, thought, and social connection, but do so not through ritual unity, but through the logic of data extraction and attention management. Thus, the article insists that digital objects must be analyzed not within the paradigm of alienation, but as "pharmacological" agents of individuation, opening the way to the design of alternative technical systems capable of enhancing collective meaning-making processes in the context of anthropological crisis.

Simondon, Stiegler, magic, pre-individual, transindividual, individuation, pharmakon, general organology, proletarianization, grammar