Amplification, nature and the scope of the transindividual

Abstract

This paper resorts to a brief passage of Gilbert Simondon's text dedicated to the concept of amplification in order to examine his concept of the transindividual regime. Simondon suggests that the processes that characterize psychical, psychosocial and social realities can be ascribed to any natural phenomena, not only human collective and individual activity. This suggestion resembles in many respects Gabriel Tarde's forecast in Monadology and Sociology, according to which modern science tends to generalize the method not of physics, but sociology, so that indeed one should refer to societies when speaking of molecules, atoms, and planets. Tarde develops an original form of relational metaphysics that emphasizes “having” over “being” and in which the condition of being is a reciprocal possession among open monads. The article explores the proximity between these authors, in order to argue that the transindividual is not only a regime of human societies, but applicable to any collective or systemic set of relations. It is further argued that any ecosystem is virtually transindividual. The first part of the development discusses Simondon’s concepts of information and “domain of transductivity”. The second part tackles Simondon’s text Amplification in the process of information, where three kinds of amplification (transductive, modulating and organizing) are distinguished. The third part deals with Tarde and his generalized sociology. The third, collective regime of individuation, named the transindividual, is the subject of part 4. The discussion and the conclusion develop the claim that contemporary issues and theories that address them are expressions of this understanding of the transindividual and its scope.