The mind first creates the world as its form, then the world actualizes that form.
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What is an "image" and why is it important?
Historically, philosophy and psychology took the "image" (mental image) for granted.
It was either considered a fantasy, a copy of perception, or a memory trace.
Simondon challenges this entire framework. According to him, the image is an active, living, creative process that bridges perception, memory, emotion, and action.
The image is not static, but processual. This image later becomes the basis for invention.
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The Origin of the Image: Body, Movement, and Premonition
This is Simondon's first fundamental idea.
The image begins in the body, not the mind.
Humans first form a "body schema," meaning potential paths of action, movement patterns, and balance predictions.
For example, when a child learns to walk, they don't "think," but rather form "motor anticipations." Images at this level are not yet visual, but rather anticipations of bodily experience.
This motor anticipation is the foundation of the image system.
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The Second Level of Image: Organizing the World
At the second level, the image is not limited to the body; it forms connections with the environment (world/milieu).
Here, the image connects perception (seeing/hearing), memory (previous experience), and action (potential action).
This image now becomes a "cognitive map," an internal framework for understanding the world.
For example, driving a car, turning a bike, catching a ball. These are not just visual images, but a dynamic map of the entire body-world relationship.
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The Third Level of Image: The World of Symbol, Emotion, and Imagination
The image now becomes more abstract and complex.
It includes emotion, symbol, meaning, goal, memory, and future.
The image no longer simply describes what things look like, but also what they mean.
For example, security from a mother's voice, identification from an object's color, future planning from a map of a place.
The image is now creating a symbolic world. This is where imagination is born.
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Invention from Image: Entering the External World
Simondon's Masterstroke:
When the image matures internally, it seeks to become an external object—an invention.
The image now manifests as a technical, artistic, or social object.
Such as a tool, a machine, an architecture, a painting, a technological solution, a scientific theory.
The image is no longer merely a "mental process,"
but becomes a world-building force.
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How does invention happen?
Simondon says that invention is the confluence of two things:
1. The internal maturation of the image
2. The external appearance of the problem
That is, invention is not merely imagination; it is the externalization of the image for problem-solving.
Examples include the wheel, the telescope, the computer, and the airplane. Behind all of these was a problem, and behind all of these was an image.
For Simondon:
Invention = Image + Problem + Material Realization
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The Relationship Between Technology, Nature, and Man
Simondon does not consider technology to be "mechanical."
According to him, technology is an expression of human experience, collective memory, cultural evolution, and embodied intelligence.
A technical object is the "external expanded body" of man. Therefore, technology is not opposed to human nature, but an extension of it.
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Society, Culture, and Collective Imagination
Simondon states that invention is not merely individual; it is collective. Because invention is impossible without social needs, cultural beliefs, technological traditions, language, and collective memory. To understand an invention, it is essential to understand the problems, aspirations, and culture of that society.
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Simondon's three fundamental philosophical principles
1. Image is not representation, but process (image = becoming, not a static picture)
2. Imagination and invention are two moments of the same process
(internal to external)
3. Technology is an extension of human existence (not artificial, but natural - continuation)
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Significance
Imagination and Invention provides a unique framework for understanding modern technology, design, creativity, AI, innovation, cognitive science, and digital culture.
Simondon's key point: Creativity is not just an activity of the mind, but an ontological process that transforms the entire world.
That is, creativity = transformation of existence.
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A simple example: Child, toy, and invention
Simondon says: When a child turns a piece of paper into a car, a house, or a rocket, they are demonstrating the most basic, pure form of invention through imagination.
They are not just "playing," they are mapping an internal image to an external object. Great scientists also engage in this same process, only on a larger scale.
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Simondon vs. Modern Psychology
Modern psychology says that imagination is like mental pictures, and creativity means novel ideas.
Simondon argues that imagination is an embodied process, and invention is a transformation of the world. Creativity, on the other hand, is a biopsychotechnical evolution. This vision is much deeper, broader, and more material.
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Simondon has influenced Deleuze, Stiegler, Latour, Simondonian media theory, philosophy of technology, posthumanism, cybernetics, and design studies.
Today, his work is finding new meaning in AI, robotics, and digital culture.
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Imagination and Invention teaches us that the image is not a picture, but a process. Imagination is a preparation for invention. Invention is the material form of the image. Technology is an extension of human life. Creativity is ontological power, the power to transform the world.
A short, beautiful sentence: “The mind first forms the world, then the world makes that form a reality.”
'Imagination and Invention' Book by Gilbert Simondon(2022)
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