The role of the concept of “pre-individual” in philosophy Gilbert Simondon and Bernard Stiegler

One of the very few who, along with Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995), recognized from the very beginning the importance of the philosophical works of the outstanding philosopher and thinker in the field of technology and technological innovation Gilbert Simondon (1924–1989) was the famous philosopher and anthropologist Bernard Stiegler (1952–2020). In his works, Stiegler not only directly refers to the works of this thinker, but also continues his thoughts, just as Simondon himself conducted a “dialogue” with Henri Bergson (1859–1941). However, the nature of this new dialogue is so specific that Stiegler questions the status of “first philosophy”, which Simondon, following Bergson, attributed to the philosophy of nature understood as cosmogenesis (Bergson) or ontogenesis (Simondon). In this case, as specific research methods for constituting the concept of the Simondon's "pre-individual" and the Stiegler's idea of the original technological nature of this pre-individual, we use such general scientific approaches as the descriptive method, the method of categorization, the method of analysis, the method of observation, the genetic method and the comparative-contrastive method. Hence, the goal of our research is not only to refute the critical assessment expressed by Stiegler in relation to Simondon, but also to successfully understand the specificity of ontogenesis, we will try to solve the following problems: 1) to reveal the philosophical understanding of the hypothesis of the pre-individual state of being, from which any phase of individuation (physical, biological, mental or psychosocial) comprehended as being flows; 2) to investigate the reasons why Stiegler has grounds to accuse Simondon of not having fully thought through the psychosocial (transindividual) phase of individuation; 3) discuss Stiegler's additional step, which ultimately recognizes the intrinsically technological dimension of the pre-individual.

Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler, ontogenesis, pre-individual being, individuation, metastability, formation, hylomorphism, technical object, artifact