Table Of ContentIndividuation in
Light of Notions of Form
and Information
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Cary Wolfe, Series Editor
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Individuation in
Light ofp oNsthoumtainoitiens 3s3 of Form
and Information
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Gilpboestrhutm aSniitmieso 3n6don
Translated by Taylor Adkins
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University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
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The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges the work of
Drew Burk, consulting editor, in the completion of this project.
Originally published in French as L’individuation à la lumière des notions de
forme et d’information, copyright Éditions Jerôme Millon, 2005.
Earlier editions of portions of this work appeared in French as L’Individu et sa
genèse physico- biologique, Presses Universitaires de France, 1964, and L’individuation
psychique et collective, copyright Éditions Aubier, 1989.
The publisher acknowledges the work of Arne De Boever, Gregory Flanders,
and Alicia Harrison, as well as the contributions of Rositza Alexandrova and Julia Ng,
on a prior translation of portions of this work.
This work received support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States through their
publishing assistance program.
Copyright 2020 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
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In memory of
Maurice Merleau-P onty
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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
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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 Mass 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
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The Theory of the Double Solution in Wave Mechanics 149
Topology, Chronology and Order of Magnitude of Physical
Individuation 158
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
Topology and Ontogenesis 250
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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 Degree 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. C ollective Individuation and the Foundations of the
Transindividual 327
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