Human Nature & the Technical Object, Reading Simondon

Instructor: Cécile Malaspina Date & Time: January 15, 22, 29, February 5. 09:00-11:30 ET

DESCRIPTION: The question of man’s place in nature today presents itself in the stark opposition between nature and technology. Locked in the end-game of an asymmetrical antagonism, technology is seen as threatening the viability of biodiversity on earth, raising dystopian visions of the obliteration of human life on earth and, consequently, of the recovery, or ultimate victory, of an indifferent cosmos. In this 1-Credit Seminar, we will revisit the notions of nature and human nature through a reading of Gilbert Simondon’s On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects (Minneapolis: Univocal/Minnesota University Press, 2017). We will distinguish at least three nuances in his conceptualization of nature: in a structural sense, as a regime of elements; in a functional sense, as what lends itself to individuation; in a more fundamental metaphysical sense, as the unlimited, the formless or infinite ápeiron [ἄπειρον]. This will enable us to discern surprises in Simondon’s understanding of the nature of things according to their essence, which implies a startling understanding of human nature. In this Seminar, we will broach Simondon’s richly faceted conceptualization of nature as one that is not based on dichotomies between the natural and the artificial or between the human and other species, implying an ethics that abhors the mythical inclination towards technocracy, if anything, as a misunderstanding of technical essence or of the “nature” of technicity.

IMAGE: Nate Lowman, Irma, 2021.

To see The New Centre Refund Policy CLICK HERE.