Gilbert Simondon

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Gilbert Simondon
Born	(1924-10-02)2 October 1924 Saint-Étienne, France
Died	7 February 1989(1989-02-07) (aged 64) Palaiseau, France
Education	Lycée de Saint-Etienne
Alma mater	École normale supérieure (Paris) (Agrégation, 1948) (Licence de Philosophie, 1948) (Licence de Psychologie, 1950) (PhD, 1958)
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy Philosophy of technology
Institutions	University of Poitiers University of Tours University of Lyon University of Paris
Theses	L'Individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information (Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information) (1958) Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (On The Mode of Existence of Technical Objects) (1958)
Doctoral advisors	Jean Hyppolite, Georges Canguilhem
Main interests	Information, communication, philosophy of nature, philosophy of science, epistemology, technology, psychology, physics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, hydraulics, chemistry, biology, crystallography, mechanics, electronics, architecture, religion, ethics, aesthetics
Notable ideas	Individuation Transduction[citation needed] Allagmatics Metastability Abstract and Concrete Technical Objects Open and Closed Systems Minor and Major Technics Techno-Aesthetics

Gilbert Simondon (French: [simɔ̃dɔ̃]; 2 October 1924 – 7 February 1989) was a French philosopher best known for his theory of individuation and his work on the field of philosophy of technology. Simondon's work is characterized by his philosophical approach on information theory, communication studies, technology and the natural sciences. Although largely overlooked in his lifetime, the advent of the Information Age has collaborated to a reappraisal and increased interest in Simondon's books, with him being seen as someone who has precisely predicted and described the social effects and paradigms technical objects and technology itself have offered in the 21st century.

Despite Simondon's thought having remained largely alienated amidst the effervescent wave of post-structuralism of his age in his homeland of France and Europe in general, a few colleagues have been pioneers in praising Simondon's writings and demonstrating the influence and weight of his intellectual work in their own, the most notable being Gilles Deleuze, whose The Logic of Sense is heavily influenced by Simondon's theory of individuation, and Herbert Marcuse, who takes inspiration from Simondon's notions of the effects of technological alienation in society in his book One-Dimensional Man. Today, Simondon's work influence can most clearly be seen in the works of Bruno Latour, Bernard Stiegler and Yuk Hui.