RELATED TERMS:
In defining the soul (psuchē), or what we might now call consciousness or experience [1], Aristotle’s theory of hylomorphism holds that the relation of soul to body is that of form to matter.
Hylomorphism is a doctrine stating that the order displayed by material systems is due to the form projected in advance of production by an external producer, a form which organises what would otherwise be chaotic or passive matter.
In Basic Problems of Phenomenology (1929) Heidegger describes the architect’s vision of form (eidos) as a drive beyond the flow of moments to a constantly present appearance. For Heidegger, the ‘metaphysics of presence’ thence arises through the unthematised transfer of this sense of being to all regions of beings.
The critique of hylomorphism is important in the work of Gilbert Simondon. According to Barthélémy, Simondon argues that the hylomorphic schema is insufficient when it comes to thinking true genesis. In the case of hylomorphism, matter and form pre-exist their union. They are already of the same mode of being as the individual of which one is trying to give an account.
In A Thousand Plateaus (1980) Deleuze and Guattari follow Simondon in developing a non-hylomorphic or ‘artisanal’ theory of production. In this theory, forms are developed by artisans out of suggested potentials of matter rather than being dreamed up by architects and then imposed on a passive matter. In artisanal production, the artisan must therefore ‘surrender’ to matter, that is, follow its potentials by attending to its immanent or implicit forms, and then devise operations that bring forth those potentials to actualise the desired properties.
Deleuze and Guattari also follow Simondon in analysing the political significance of hylomorphism. For Simondon, hylomorphism is ‘a socialized representation of work,’ the viewpoint of a master commanding slave labor. For Deleuze and Guattari, hylomorphism also has an important political dimension, as a hylomorphic representation of a body politic resonates with fascist desire, in which the leader comes from on high to rescue his people from chaos by his imposition of order.
As an extension of this, matter could be considered as self-organising, not even needing an artisan, as argued by Marx and Darwin. This is in accord with the postmodern bottom-up view.
The value of these notions sits in the context of the question of what it means ‘to design’.
Notes
[1] R.D. Laing, for example, asserts in The Politics of Experience, that, “Experience used to be called The Soul.”
References
Barthélémy, J.-H. (2012) Fifty key terms in the works of Gilbert Simondon, in Boever, A. De et al. (eds) Gilbert Simondon: Being and Technology. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 203–231.
Bonta, M. and Protevi, J. (2004). Deleuze and geophilosophy: a guide and glossary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Protevi, J., ed. (2006). A Dictionary of continental philosophy. New Haven: Yale University Press
Simondon, G. (2020) Individuation in light of notions of form and information. Translated by T. Adkins. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
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