Bernard Stiegler: Philosophy, Technics, and Activism

This essay characterizes the principal theoretical coordinates of Stiegler’s philosophy of technology and assesses its relevance for critical explorations between culture and the political. The focus is on Stiegler’s major philosophical series, Technics and Time, and how he articulates therein his contribution to the philosophical consideration of technics in relation to key influences such as Gilbert Simondon, André Leroi-Gourhan, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, and Immanuel Kant. It then examines the activist dimension of Stiegler’s later writing projects in the context of his work at the Pompidou Centre’s Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation of which he is the founding director, and with Ars Industrialis, the association he co-founded to promote a renewed public sphere engagement with key questions of contemporary technocultural becoming. A review of the critical reception of Stiegler’s work in Anglophone contexts ensues.