Historical individuation in the light of speculative ontology and new materialism in Manuel DeLanda.

This work examines the concept of individuation as a historical process, developed by the representative of speculative ontology and new materialism, Manuel DeLanda. The aim of this article is not only to rethink the problem of the formation of individual entities (individuals, institutions, cities, and nation-states), but also to consider it within the context of the concept of "assemblage." In other words, historical individuation in DeLanda's work is a concept that describes the process of formation and stabilization of social, cultural, and material entities through the interaction of heterogeneous elements within social assemblages. DeLanda borrows the term "individuation" from Gilbert Simondon, but reinterprets it in the framework of his speculative ontology, which unites nonlinear material processes, contingency, and emergence. Hence, it follows that all entities—from molecules to cities, from bacteria to algorithms—exist in one plane, without hierarchy. The interdisciplinary analysis of historical individuation in DeLanda's framework requires a rejection of reductionism, consideration of the multiplicity of levels, and an emphasis on processuality, as well as a combination of comparative-historical, systemic, and network approaches. A key task is to capture the dynamics of interactions in assemblages, taking into account the role of contingency and emergence. This allows for a departure from simplified models of history in favor of a multidimensional analysis, where the material and social intertwine in unpredictable patterns. Furthermore, DeLanda's concept of individuation as a historical process enables the analysis of history as a multitude of intertwining processes, where "material" and "social" are interdependent, and contingency and emergence coexist. In this case, the achievement of the concept of "assemblage" is the description of relationships as external, that is, multiple and qualitatively diverse. Through the parameterization of philosophical concepts, DeLanda is capable of describing phenomena as simulations, tracking their changes through chains of relationships rather than through cause-and-effect links. This ability to quantitatively represent previously unique events makes the concept of "assemblages" promising for analyzing correlations found in large volumes of information. Nevertheless, this transformation leads to a loss of emphasis on individual existence, which falls outside of DeLanda's consideration. As a metaphysics of multiplicity, also utilizing scientific concepts but retaining a focus on individual existence, one can reference the concept of "individuation" by Gilbert Simondon.