Gilbert Simondon (1924–1989) is best known as a philosopher of technology, a field in which he was profoundly innovative. He may be regarded as the founder of an “eco-technology,” in which technology is not the domination of living beings, but a process of co-individuation between humans, technical objects, and environments. The technical object is not merely a tool: it evolves and becomes integrated into its surroundings. Every invention must therefore respect the energetic and biological balances it involves. Technology thus becomes a practice of adjustment and care, rather than an extractive and destructive gesture.
Philippe Barrier extends this line of thought by opening it to its ecological and political dimensions. He also sheds light on its ontological and metaphysical significance. These analyses profoundly challenge our representations of the world and offer resources for confronting contemporary crises.
At the heart of this philosophy lies the process of individuation, which connects everything that exists. It dissolves the classical dualisms, particularly those between matter and form, or between humanity and nature. There are no fixed essences: everything is metastable, shaped by continual becoming. The human individual emerges from a psycho-collective individuation and carries within himself a pre-individual dimension. With individuation, the foundations of sovereign egoism and modern separations collapse. Already influential in design and ecological economics, this philosophy opens the way toward a politics of living beings in continual becoming.
Patrick FRÉMEAUX

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