The Life Different From Itself: Simondon and the (Dis)Continuity between Inert and Living Matter

Abstract

In this article we analyze the problematic relation that the French philosopher Gilbert Simondon establishes between inert matter and living matter concerning his theory of individuation. We attempt to demonstrate that despite the theoretical efforts of Simondon to found the nature of life in the order of the inorganic or physico-chemical phenomena, the processes of vital individuation results in functioning modes, structures, and dynamisms which have no precedents in the inert matter, fact that authorizes a definition of life as pure difference from itself