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<p>Acknowledgments vii</p> <p>Introduction ix</p> <p><b>Chapter 1. Simondon’s Philosophy of Technics: A Work Program</b> <b>1</b></p> <p>1.1. A philosophy of technicity 1</p> <p>1.1.1. Simondonian functionalism 4</p> <p>1.1.2. The question of the localization of technicity 12</p> <p>1.1.3. The question of the representatives of technicity 17</p> <p>1.2. The Simondonian method: approaching the technical object as closely as possible 21</p> <p>1.2.1. The epistemological stakes: an inductive method 22</p> <p>1.2.2. Case study of a technological example 24</p> <p>1.2.3. Reproducing the Simondonian gesture 28</p> <p>1.3. Confronting Simondon’s thoughts with computers 29</p> <p>1.3.1. Existing work on Simondon and computers 29</p> <p>1.3.2. The positioning of our study 35</p> <p><b>Chapter 2. Genetic Study of Technology: the Software Program, A Technical Object?</b> <b>37</b></p> <p>2.1. Definition and problem statement of the digital object 37</p> <p>2.1.1. Technical objects according to Simondon 38</p> <p>2.1.2. The browser, a digital object that represents software 40</p> <p>2.2. Constructing the software program from the margin of indeterminacy 51</p> <p>2.2.1. The computer-machine and the margin of indeterminacy 52</p> <p>2.2.2. The complexification of computer code 59</p> <p>2.2.3. Three hypotheses on the status of the software program 64</p> <p>2.3. The levels of technicity of software 65</p> <p>2.3.1. The genesis of the browser 66</p> <p>2.3.2. The element, the associated milieu 70</p> <p><b>Chapter 3. Psychosocial Study of Free Software</b> <b>77</b></p> <p>3.1. The problem of the industrial technical object 79</p> <p>3.1.1. The question of the commensurability of technics 80</p> <p>3.1.2. The dual alienation of industrial technical objects 81</p> <p>3.1.3. Saving the technical object by dethroning it 87</p> <p>3.2. The promise of openness of software as a postindustrial technical object 89</p> <p>3.2.1. A complex system 90</p> <p>3.2.2. A postindustrial configuration 91</p> <p>3.2.3. The free software program, guarantor of software technicity 94</p> <p>3.3. Bricolage with the digital technical object 98</p> <p>3.3.1. Aspects and extension of the concept of bricolage 99</p> <p>3.3.2. Computer bricolage 106</p> <p>Conclusion 117</p> <p>Glossary 125</p> <p>References 131</p> <p>Index 141</p>

Coline Ferrarato is a discussion leader at Savoirs ENS in France. Her research focuses on the notion of immateriality in political philosophy. She is also developing a reflection around pedagogy.

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