LAURA FRANCIS

The image has been a constitutive issue in philosophical reflection since its beginnings and, in this sense, we can see that the analysis of the image, its status, its functions, reveals above all an active function in the psyche that could be at the genesis of our relationship with the world. Starting from this problematic field, we will analyze the concept of image in Gilbert Simondon, detailed especially in the course Imagination et invention. In this book, Simondon offers a profoundly original approach, positioning the image as an essential mediator in the process of individuation, which encompasses different separate and independent realities, but which form phases of the same cycle. The genetic cycle of images, in general terms, is articulated in four phases: motor-images; perceptive-images; symbol-images; and, through invention, object-images, which have the potential to be transformed into technical and aesthetic objects. Simondon proposes an understanding of the image as a fundamental element in the coevolution between humans, technology and nature, thus revealing the complex fabric that sustains our relationship with the world and the constant dynamic of invention.