Philosophy as political technē: The tradition of invention in Simondon’s political thought

Gilbert Simondon has recently attracted the interest of political philosophers and theorists, despite he is rather renowned as a philosopher of technics – as the author of Of the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects – who also elaborated a general theory of complex systems in Individuation in the Light of the Notions of Form and Information. A group of scholars has developed Gilles Deleuze’s early suggestion that Simondon’s social ontology might offer the basis for a re-theorisation of radical democracy. Others, following Herbert Marcuse, have instead focused on Simondon’s analysis of the relationship between technology and society. However, only a joint study of Simondon’s two major works can reveal their implicit political stakes. As I will argue, Simondon’s anti-Aristotelianism and his anti-Heideggerian understanding of the Greek origins of philosophy, allow us to conceive philosophical thought as a ‘tradition of invention’, that is, a pedagogical technē endowed with the political task of maintaining the openness of the social system and allowing normative invention to emerge from within

Origins, Developments and Future of the Concept of Innovation: Opening the Economic Framing of Innovation to Social, Ethical, Political Parameters to Achieve Responsibility: Strengths and Limits

Part 1: Society, Social Responsibility, Ethics and ICTInternational audienceThe concept of innovation is making a successful comeback in philosophy, particularly with the qualifier “responsible” attached. This attachment of the qualification “responsible” reflects the idea that the concept of innovation has to be opened to new considerations, namely social, political and ethical concerns. Since the 18th century, innovation has been the object of economics and science of business and growth. This paper aims at testing the legitimacy of these attempts to open the concept and redefine it in terms other than those of economics. We start with a contextualization of the use of the term innovation, to see why it has been so strongly associated with the market, growth and business then we see what is at stake in opening it up to other considerations. We consider the limits of this opening and look at possible ways to attach other meanings to the concept, without losing significance by too much inclusion. The solution proposed is that instead of imposing new parameters and trying to shift the concept, we could keep the economic bias of the term, but challenge it with concerns expressed by people coming from the field of economics who are trying to propose an alternative framework for economics that would take into account other concerns, and in which responsible innovation could find a place

Ethics of Technology in France

International audienceOffering an overall insight into the French tradition of philosophy of technology, this volume is meant to make French-speaking contributions more accessible to the international philosophical community. The first section, “Negotiating a Cultural Heritage,” presents a number of leading 20th century philosophical figures (from Bergson and Canguilhem to Simondon, Dagognet or Ellul) and intellectual movements (from Personalism to French Cybernetics and political ecology) that help shape philosophy of technology in the Francophone area, and feed into contemporary debates (ecology of technology, politics of technology, game studies). The second section, “Coining and Reconfiguring Technoscience,” traces the genealogy of this controversial concept and discusses its meanings and relevance. A third section, “Revisiting Anthropological Categories,” focuses on the relationships of technology with the natural and the human worlds from various perspectives that include anthropotechnology, Anthropocene, technological and vital norms and temporalities. The final section, “Innovating in Ethics, Design and Aesthetics,” brings together contributions that draw on various French traditions to afford fresh insights on ethics of technology, philosophy of design, techno-aesthetics and digital studies. The contributions in this volume are vivid and rich in original approaches that can spur exchanges and debates with other philosophical traditions

Analyse rétrospective de la production de la Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances

L'article rappelle le projet scientifique et éditorial à l'origine de la Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances (RAC), lancée en 2007, en particulier la convergence pluridisciplinaire qui l'avait portée sur ses fondations. Il expose ensuite les pratiques et les choix de politique éditoriale qui l'ont façonnée et dont les procédures ne sont pas a priori moins importantes que les contenus et les orientations épistémiques. Elles concernent les procédures d'évaluation mais aussi les choix de support (l'accès électronique en ligne), de format d'articles notamment, de langue de publication, de diffusion (l'accès complet aux lecteurs) et de modèle économique

The Role of the Philosophy of Technology in French-Language Studies of Video Games

International audienceThis paper analyzes the role played by the philosophies of technology in the development of French-language studies devoted to video games. This intellectual tradition is well represented within the field, in a variety of forms which are characteristic of the main tendencies in the French-language philosophy of technology. The field of games studies allows us to compare these different approaches to a single object. We analyze the specificities of the French-language field, its theoretical options, and the role played by the philosophy of technology in its points of divergence from the dominant tendencies in game studies. We specifically discuss four studies located at the intersection between philosophy of technology and video games studies : the reference to Simondon in Etienne Perény's works; the framework of « technological macro-systems » (Gras) according to Raphaël Koster; the alliance between philosophy of technology and phenomenology in the work of Elsa Boyer (Husserl, Derrida and Stiegler); and lastly, the utilization of the "philosophy of technical environments" (Beaune) in our own Philosophy of video games