In Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy, transduction is a core concept that describes the process of individuation — how a being comes into existence, not as a fixed substance, but as a dynamic resolution of tensions within a metastable field.
It’s not a metaphor. It’s his precise term for how form emerges through relational becoming.
Let’s break it down:
🧠 1.
Definition of Transduction (in Simondon’s terms)
“Transduction is a process whereby an activity propagates within a domain, establishing successive regions of coherence by founding each new region on the previous one.”
— *Simondon, L’Individuation en tant que processus
In simpler terms:
- Transduction is the creative process by which something becomes itself.
- It is not imposed from outside, like a mold shaping clay.
- Nor is it already inside, like a blueprint being copied.
- Instead, it is immanent to the process — it happens as the system resolves its own internal tensions.
🔄 2.
Analogy: Crystallization
One of Simondon’s favorite examples is crystallization:
- A crystal starts forming from a seed in a supersaturated solution.
- As the crystal grows, each layer conditions the next — the structure emerges from within, by propagating an internal order.
- This is transduction: a structure propagating through a medium by creating conditions for its own extension.
So:
Crystallization is not copying a pre-existing form. It’s inventing the form as it goes, one layer at a time.
🌌 3.
Application to Ontology: Individuation
For Simondon, all beings are the result of individuation, not static essence.
- A being is not first a substance and then acquires relations.
- Instead, a being is its relations — and it becomes itself through transduction.
The individual is always a phase in a broader pre-individual field, full of potential tensions, gradients, and forces.
Transduction is the logic by which that pre-individual becomes structured — for example:
- The emergence of a biological organism
- The formation of a psychological subject
- The co-creation of a collective or technical object
🧩 4.
Not Deduction, Not Induction… but Transduction
Simondon contrasts transduction with classical reasoning forms:
|
Reasoning |
Description |
Limitation |
|
Deduction |
From general to particular |
Presumes fixed forms |
|
Induction |
From particulars to general |
Extracts patterns from existing data |
|
Transduction |
From singular to singular |
Creates new patterns through ongoing process |
Thus, transduction is a generative logic, not just an inferential one.
💡 5.
Why It Matters (Philosophically & Psychologically)
Simondon uses transduction to:
- Critique substantialist metaphysics: no more fixed essences.
- Reconceptualize technology and individuation: tools, minds, societies all emerge through relational becoming.
- Rethink psychic and collective individuation: the self is not an atom, but a vector in a field of becoming.
In psychology or therapy (especially in post-psychoanalytic or Simondonian frameworks), transduction may describe:
- How a subject emerges over time, not from a hidden core, but through encounters, tensions, mediations, like:
- Between drives and norms
- Between trauma and repair
- Between affect and environment
🌀 Final Image
Transduction is the trembling of a form finding itself — a ripple that becomes a wave, a gesture that becomes a dance, a life that becomes a self.
Would you like to see how Simondon’s transduction intersects with Deleuze’s philosophy, or with posthuman individuation, or even with your 菊次郎十六式?
