Repetition and Difference: Gilles Deleuze and the Creative Legacy of Gilbert Simondon

The article is dedicated to the systematic analysis of the creative reception and fundamental transformation of the heritage of Gilbert Simondon within the philosophical project of Gilles Deleuze. The aim of the research is to demonstrate that the ontology of process developed by Simondon, as a counterpoint to substantial metaphysics and the hilemorphic scheme, became a key ontological foundation for Deleuze. The work argues that concepts such as individuation, the pre-individual field, metastability, and transduction were not merely borrowed but underwent radical theoretical reworking. As a result of this operation, they were scaled from the level of describing specific physical-biological processes to the level of a universal ontology, which underpinned Deleuze's metaphysics of difference. Furthermore, Deleuze transforms the Simondonian method of "starting from the middle" into a transcendental logic of synthesis, and he modifies the intentional understanding of space-time into a doctrine of the spatial aspect of the intensive and pure form of time. The methodological approach of the study is based on the sequential application of complementary methods: textual and conceptual-genetic analysis to identify and trace the transformation of key concepts of Simondon within Deleuze's system. Additionally, comparative analysis and philosophical hermeneutics are employed to identify zones of divergence and interpret the systemic consequences of the identified borrowings. This synthetic approach allows for not only stating the influence but also revealing its creative, constructive nature in the formation of the metaphysics of difference. The relevance and novelty of the research are defined by the necessity to overcome the simplified reading of Simondon's influence on poststructuralist thought as merely one of many sources. Unlike existing approaches, in this article, reception is understood as a system-forming act, in which there is no borrowing of terms but an ontological re-equipping of the entire Deleuze project. The scientific novelty lies in the consistent identification of three levels of transformation: 1) ontological (generalization of the pre-individual to the virtual as a universal principle of differentiation); 2) methodological (the transformation of transduction into transcendental empiricism and the synthesis of time); 3) spatial-temporal (the transition from relative parameters of the process to absolute conditions of the thinkable as such). Thus, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of the genealogy of key concepts in contemporary philosophy and opens up prospects for their application in the fields of speculative realism, the philosophy of techniques, and new materialisms.

Deleuze, Simondon, individuation, difference, repetition, virtual, pre-individual, metastability, transduction, process ontology