Analyses Of Simondon's Technical Philosophy

The philosophy of technology is about the relationship between the human being and the technology and also it's about the relationship between the technology and the society,which wants to solve the problem between the human being and the technology.A lot of philosophers have responded to this question in different ways,and among them,Gilbert Simondon is a very special one.As Gilbert Simondon is a very creative French philosopher of technology,he has chosen a totally different way to discuss the technology.He used the concept from the psychology to think about the question of technology whereby he has established his unique philosophy of technology.He has transformed the principle of individuation from the psychology into the philosophy of technology and interpreted differently in the term of the physics,the biology and the psychology.In his philosophy of technology,individuation is the principle of the development of the technical objects,which means a trend towards the stability.Individuation is also a process in which the technical objects exchange information with the surroundings and absorb some outside facts.Therefore,the core of research in Simondon's philosophy of technology is the technical objects,not the abstract technology.Although his philosophy of technology is very different from the traditional philosophy of technology,it doesn't mean that his philosophy lacked the base of philosophy.Simondon's philosophy has benefitted a lot from the French philosophy.As the successor of Gaston Bachelard,he continued Bachelard's unfinished work and turned the objects of research from the science to the technology,especially the technical objects.As a result,he completed the investigation of technical objects in the term of practice,which is non-universal,anti-essential and historical.Non-universal means that Simondon considered the technology in the concrete context instead of in an abstract way of definition;anti-essential means that he argued that there is an essence of the technology;and historical represents the character of the way Simondon did his research,he has used a lot of historical materials to prove his opinions,which means his research has the historical base.Compared with the traditional philosophy of technology,his thoughts are the rebellion.He extended the concept "Individuation" to the physical dimension,especially the technical objects and did his research in three domains:the definition of technology,human and technology,society and technology.As a result,he broke the traditional contrary relationship between the human and the technology,and thought that their relationships are not the simple affiliation relationship and they are just in the different phase of the process of individuation.So it doesn't exist the problem between the human and the technology.Through doubting the hypothesis of the traditional philosophy of technology,Simondon brokethrough the dilemma of traditional philosophy of technology—it could not completely solve the problem between the human and the technology,and unified the two into one,whereby he broke the dualism of the relationship of the human and the technology.According to the Simondon's theories,the problem of the technology is temporary and it does not result from the technology itself or from the human being.Having problems is a very normal phenomenon,and it is just the process of individuation.When we have the problems of technology,we should focus on the development of technology instead of blaming the technology or the human being,trying to solve the problems that traditional philosophy of technology faces,which gives us a lot of supporting theories to think about the contemporary problems.But the study of Simondon's philosophy of technology in China just begins,so this paper will introduce the concept of individuation to present Simondon's philosophy of technology.