Imagination And Invention - Gilbert Simondon

A Radical Rethinking Of The Theory And The Experience Of Mental Images Here, In English Translation For The First Time, Is Gilbert Simondons Fundamental Reconception Of The Mental Image And The Theory Of Imagination And Invention. Drawing On A Vast Range Of Mid-twentieth-century Theoretical Resources-from Experimental Psychology, Cybernetics, And Ethology To The Phenomenological Reflections Of Sartre And Merleau-ponty- Imagination And Invention Provides A Comprehensive Account Of The Mental Image And Adds A Vital Dimension To The Theory Of Psychical Individuation In Simondons Earlier, Highly Influential Work. Simondon Traces The Development Of The Mental Image Through Four Phases: First A Bundle Of Motor Anticipations, The Image Becomes A Cognitive System That Mediates The Organisms Relation To Its Milieu, Then A Symbolic And Abstract Integration Of Motor And Affective Experience To, Finally, Invention, A Solution To A Problem Of Life That Requires The Externalization Of The Mental Image And The Creation Of A Technical Object.