This chapter analyses Gilbert Simondon's theory of ontogenesis, which describes the processes of the individuation of living and non-living beings. Simondon argues that philosophy should be concerned not with substantial, defined and bounded individuals but with the processes of individuation that create these individuals. Thus, Simondon creates a universal theory of individuation, which is understood as a process initiated by the pre-individual state that contains a potential or a charge, and is then accomplished in a series of differentiations that result in creating an individual. In this sense, Simondon argues that ontology is based not on identity but on difference that forces individuals to move from one phase to another and undergo a qualitative change. What is relevant for this book is that Simondon creates a method of analogical paradigmatism that allows one to compare different – physical, biological, psychosocial and technical – systems. Simondon not only defines the unique nature of biological individuation but also reveals that psychical and social individuation, as well as technical invention, are deeply rooted in the biological. The comparison between different kinds of individuations helps Simondon to develop a universal theory of ontogenesis which can explain the continuity between living and non-living, organic and inorganic systems.

Simondon's works are not very numerous: his main ideas are formulated in the doctoral thesis Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information and the complementary thesis On the Existence of Technical Objects, both defended in 1958. The complementary thesis was published immediately after the defence in 1958, whereas his major work on individuation had to wait to become accessible to a wider audience. Nevertheless, Simondon's works were known to his contemporaries, and his works deeply influenced Gilles Deleuze, who not only wrote a review of Simondon's book, but also incorporated Simondon's ideas into his own work. Simondon's notion of individuation is discussed in Deleuze's Difference and Repetition, and his theory of material becoming can be traced throughout Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus. Recently Simondon's works have been widely discussed and reconsidered by Bernard Stiegler, Yuk Hui, Elizabeth Grosz, Anne Sauvagnargues, Brian Massumi and others.