Individuation is a concept which appears in numerous fields. In very general terms, it is the name given to processes whereby the undifferentiated tends to become individual, or to those processes through which differentiated components tend toward becoming a more indivisible whole.

The term serves sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, theologians and embryologists, among others, and thus has been variously defined by different scholars, including Arthur Schopenhauer, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Erik Erikson, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Charles Darwin. Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective Embryology (from Greek grc ἔμβρυον embryon, "unborn embryo" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study of the development Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Erik Homburger Erikson ( June 15, 1902 – May 12, 1994) was born in Frankfurt to Danish parents but later obtained Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Nietzsche, for example, offers an extensive discussion of the tension between impartial, chaotic fluidity and individuated subjectivity in The Birth of Tragedy, these dichotomous qualities embodied by the Dionysian and Apollonian respectively. The Birth of Tragedy ( Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik, 1872 is a 19th Century work of philosophy by Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche claims that the perpetual, unresolvable tension between these two opposing aspects of nature fosters the conditions necessary for the creation of tragic art.

In economics, individuation parallels specialization and increases the efficiency of the division of labor. Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Division of labour or specialization is the specialization of cooperative labour in specific circumscribed tasks and roles intended to increase the Productivity It serves as a means for individuals to find comparative advantage in the marketplace. In international trade the principle of comparative advantage refers to the fact that although one country may have an absolute disadvantage with another value can be created for both

Accounts of the process of individuation may be found in work by Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler, Gilles Deleuze, Henri Bergson, David Bohm, and Manuel De Landa. Gilbert Simondon ( October 2 1924 &ndash February 7 1989) was a French Philosopher best known for his theory of Bernard Stiegler (born April 1, 1952) is a French Philosopher and Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Gilles Deleuze ( (January 18 1925 &ndash November 4 1995 was a French philosopher of the late 20th century David Joseph Bohm ( December 20 1917, Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania – October 27 1992, London) was an American Manuel DeLanda, (born 1952 in Mexico City) is a Writer, Artist and Philosopher who has lived in New York since 1975

Gilbert Simondon on individuation

In L'individuation psychique et collective, Gilbert Simondon developed a theory of individual and collective individuation, in which the individual subject is considered as an effect of individuation, rather than a cause. Gilbert Simondon ( October 2 1924 &ndash February 7 1989) was a French Philosopher best known for his theory of Thus the individual atom is replaced by the neverending ontological process of individuation. Simondon also conceived of "pre-individual fields" as the funds making individuation itself possible. Individuation is an always incomplete process, always leaving a "pre-individual" left-over, itself making possible future individuations. Furthermore, individuation always creates both an individual and a collective subject, which individuate themselves together.

Bernard Stiegler on individuation

The philosophy of Bernard Stiegler draws upon and modifies the work of Gilbert Simondon on individuation, as well as similar ideas in Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Bernard Stiegler (born April 1, 1952) is a French Philosopher and Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Gilbert Simondon ( October 2 1924 &ndash February 7 1989) was a French Philosopher best known for his theory of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded During a talk given at the Tate Modern in 2004, Stiegler summarized his understanding of individuation. The Tate Modern in London is Britain 's national museum of international Modern art and is with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, The essential points are the following:

• The I, as a psychic individual, can only be thought in relationship to a we, which is a collective individual: the I is constituted in adopting a collective tradition, which it inherits, and in which a plurality of Is acknowledge each other’s existence.
• This inheritance is an adoption in that I can very well, as the French grandson of a German immigrant, recognize myself in a past that was not the past of my ancestors, but that I can make my own; this process of adoption is thus structurally factical.
• An I is essentially a process, and not a state, and this process is an in-dividuation (it is a process of psychic individuation) as the tendency to become-one, that is, to become indivisible.
• This tendency never accomplishes itself because it runs into a counter-tendency with which it forms a metastable equilibrium (it must be pointed out how close this conception of the dynamic of individuation is to the Freudian theory of drives, but also to the thinking of Empedocles and of Nietzsche). Metastability is a general scientific concept which describes states of delicate equilibrium Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Empedocles ( Greek:, ca 490–430 BC was a Greek Pre-Socratic Philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist
• A we is also such a process (the process of collective individuation); the individuation of the I is always inscribed in that of the we, whereas conversely, the individuation of the we takes place only through those individuations, polemical in nature, of the Is making it up.
• That which links the individuations of the I and the we is a pre-individual milieu possessing positive conditions of effectiveness, belonging to what Stiegler calls retentional apparatuses. These retentional apparatuses arise from a technical milieu which is the condition of the encounter of the I and the we: the individuation of the I and the we is in this respect also the individuation of the technical system.
• The technical system is an apparatus which has a specific role (wherein all objects are inserted: a technical object exists only insofar as it is disposed within such an apparatus with other technical objects: this is what Gilbert Simondon calls the technical group): the rifle, for example, and more generally the technical becoming with which it forms a system, are thus the possibility of the emergence of a disciplinary society, according to Michel Foucault. Gilbert Simondon ( October 2 1924 &ndash February 7 1989) was a French Philosopher best known for his theory of Disciplinary institutions ( French) is a Concept proposed by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish (1975 Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist.
• The technical system is also that which founds the possibility of the constitution of retentional apparatuses, springing from the processes of grammatization growing out of the process of individuation of the technical system, and these retentional apparatuses are the basis for the dispositions between the individuation of the I and the individuation of the we in a single process of psychic, collective and technical individuation (where grammatization is a subset of technics) composed of three branches, each branching out into processual groups.
• This process of triple individuation is itself inscribed in a vital individuation which must be apprehended by a general organology as the vital individuation of natural organs, the technological individuation of artificial organs, and the psycho-social individuation of organizations linking them together.
• In the process of individuation constitutive of general organology wherein knowledge as such emerges, there are individuations of mnemo-technological sub-systems which over-determine, qua specific organizations of what Stiegler calls tertiary retentions, the organization, the transmission and the elaboration of knowledge stemming from the experience of the sensible.

Stiegler is also concerned with the destructive consequences for psychic and collective individuation which may result from consumerism and consumer capitalism (see, for example, Stiegler, The Disaffected Individual). Consumerism is the equation of personal Happiness with the purchase of material possessions and consumption. Consumer capitalism describes a theoretical economic and cultural condition in which consumer demand is manipulated in a deliberate and coordinated way on a very large scale

Bibliography

• Gilbert Simondon, Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (Méot, 1958; Paris: Aubier, 1989, second edition). Gilbert Simondon ( October 2 1924 &ndash February 7 1989) was a French Philosopher best known for his theory of (French)
• Gilbert Simondon, On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects, Part 1, link to PDF file of 1980 translation.
• Gilbert Simondon, L'individu et sa genèse physico-biologique (l'individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information) (Paris: PUF, 1964; J. Millon, coll. Krisis, 1995, second edition). (French)
• Gilbert Simondon, The Individual and Its Physico-Biological Genesis, Part 1, link to HTML file of unpublished 2007 translation.
• Gilbert Simondon, The Individual and Its Physico-Biological Genesis, Part 2, link to HTML file of unpublished 2007 translation.
• Gilbert Simondon, L'Individuation psychique et collective (1964; Paris: Aubier, 1989). (French)
• Bernard Stiegler, Constitution and Individuation.
• Bernard Stiegler, Desire and Knowledge: The Dead Seize the Living.
• Bernard Stiegler, Nanomutations, Hypomnemata, and Grammatisation.
• Bernard Stiegler, Temps et individuation technique, psychique, et collective dans l’oeuvre de Simondon. Bernard Stiegler (born April 1, 1952) is a French Philosopher and Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre (French)

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic