Earth Collective. Natural Conditions for a Transindividual Politics

Gus Hewlett

doi:10.54103/2039-9251/20823

Autori

Gus Hewlett Kingston University London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2039-9251/20823

Parole chiave:

Simondon, Balibar, Transindividual, Gaia, Ecology.

Abstract

The concept of a transindividual relation has been articulated in order to resolve the problem of the unity of individuals in association with others. More particularly, it has been offered as a route for overcoming a disjunctive tendency whereby either individuality is lost to an encompassing collective, or the substance of the individual renders the collective accidental, optional, or a mere semblance. Transindividuality thus offers a way to think individuals and collectives thereof as relative, mutually dependent and constitutive, whilst maintaining a separation between the two. Equally, it affords a conception of a collective which is more than the sum of its parts, or an arbitrary aggregate of beings.

Whilst this abstract description of transindividuality might appear apt for ecological or earth systems analysis, to date this has not been attempted. Neither of the two most significant thinkers of transindividuality, Gilbert Simondon and Étienne Balibar, broach the question of a natural transindividual at any length, nor do the various monographs and special editions of journals which have been dedicated to extending and criticising the former authors’ analysis of transindividuality. As such, this article addresses this lacuna through discussion of the problem of natural transindividuality, claiming that mutual dependency and constitution between individuals and collectives pertains to geophysical and vital relations as much as it does to human social relations.

Riferimenti bibliografici

Aspe, B., Simondon, politique du transindividual, Dittmar, Paris 2013.

Balibar, E., ‘Possessive Individualism’ Reversed: From Locke to Derrida, in “Constellations”, 9/3 (2002), pp. 299-317.

Balibar, E., Spinoza, the Transindividual, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2020.

Barthélémy, J.-H., Simondon, ou l’encylopédisme génétique, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 2008.

Bernard, C., Leçons sur les phénomènes de la vie communs aux animaux et aux végétaux, Ballière, Paris 1878.

Bardin, A., Rodriguez, P., A Vindication of Simondon’s Political Anthropology, in “Australasian Philosophical Review”, 2/1 (2018), pp. 54-61.

Bergson, H., Creative Evolution, The Modern Library, New York 1944.

Carson, R., Silent Spring, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1962.

Combes, M., Gilbert Simondon and the Philosophy of the Transindividual, The MIT Press, Cambridge 2013.

Descartes, R., Méditations et Principes [éd. Adam-Tannery, IX, II], Léopold Clerf, Paris 1904.

Kant, I., Critique of Pure Reason, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998.

Kelly, M. G. E., Vardoulakis, D. (eds.), “Australasian Philosophical Review”, 2/1 (2018).

Lovelock, J., Margulis, L., Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere: the gaia hypothesis, in “Tellus”, 26/1-2 (1974), pp. 2-10.

Lovelock, J., Ages of Gaia, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1988.

Mancuso, S., Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, Island Press, Washington D.C. 2015.

Marx, K., The German Ideology, Prometheus Books, Guildford 1998.

Read, J., The Politics of Transindividuality, Brill, Leiden 2016.

Schellnhuber, H. J., Crutzen, P. J., Clark, W. C., Claussen, M., Held, H., Earth System Analysis for Sustainability, The MIT Press, Cambridge 2004.

Simondon, G., L’individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information,

Millon, Vaucanson 2015.

Simondon, G., Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2020.

Stolze, T., Jason Read: The Politics of Transindividuality [review], in “Hum Stud”, 40 (2017), pp. 707-711.

Smolin, L., Mangabeira Unger, R., The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time. A Proposal in Natural Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015.

Wall, D., Jason Read: The Politics of Transindividuality [review], in “Marx and Philosophy” (2018). Available at: https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/15539_the-politics-of-transindividuality-reviewed-by-derek-wall.