
Imagination and Invention
Gilbert Simondon(Author)
University of Minnesota Press
Published on 17. January 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-5179-1445-5 (ISBN)
Description
A radical rethinking of the theory and the experience of mental images
Here, in English translation for the first time, is Gilbert Simondon's fundamental reconception of the mental image and the theory of imagination and invention. Drawing on a vast range of mid-twentieth-century theoretical resources-from experimental psychology, cybernetics, and ethology to the phenomenological reflections of Sartre and Merleau-Ponty-Imagination and Invention provides a comprehensive account of the mental image and adds a vital new dimension to the theory of psychical individuation in Simondon's earlier, highly influential work.
Simondon traces the development of the mental image through four phases: first a bundle of motor anticipations, the image becomes a cognitive system that mediates the organism's relation to its milieu, then a symbolic and abstract integration of motor and affective experience to, finally, invention, a solution to a problem of life that requires the externalization of the mental image and the creation of a technical object. An image cannot be understood from the perspective of one phase alone, he argues, but only within the trajectory of its progressive metamorphosis.
Here, in English translation for the first time, is Gilbert Simondon's fundamental reconception of the mental image and the theory of imagination and invention. Drawing on a vast range of mid-twentieth-century theoretical resources-from experimental psychology, cybernetics, and ethology to the phenomenological reflections of Sartre and Merleau-Ponty-Imagination and Invention provides a comprehensive account of the mental image and adds a vital new dimension to the theory of psychical individuation in Simondon's earlier, highly influential work.
Simondon traces the development of the mental image through four phases: first a bundle of motor anticipations, the image becomes a cognitive system that mediates the organism's relation to its milieu, then a symbolic and abstract integration of motor and affective experience to, finally, invention, a solution to a problem of life that requires the externalization of the mental image and the creation of a technical object. An image cannot be understood from the perspective of one phase alone, he argues, but only within the trajectory of its progressive metamorphosis.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Minnesota
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 217 mm
Width: 143 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
303 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5179-1445-5 (9781517914455)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989) was a French philosopher of technology whose work continues to attract new interest within a variety of academic fields. His books in English translation include Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information, Volumes 1 and 2, and On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects (all from Minnesota).
Christophe Wall-Romana is professor and Samuel Russell Chair in the Humanities at the University of Minnesota.
Joe Hughes is senior lecturer in English and Theater Studies at the University of Melbourne.
Christophe Wall-Romana is professor and Samuel Russell Chair in the Humanities at the University of Minnesota.
Joe Hughes is senior lecturer in English and Theater Studies at the University of Melbourne.