Stiegler, Philosopher

Bernard Stiegler’s prolific career consisted both in philosophical reflection and concrete political interventions. In this article, Stiegler’s project in Technics and Time is re-evaluated with an eye towards its philosophical specificity and radicality. Technics and Time, read in this way, is shown to be a genuine rival to Heidegger’s fundamental ontology from Being and Time. By making use of André Leroi-Gourhan’s paleoanthropological reflections among other forms of non-philosophical knowledge, Stiegler is able to grasp the fundamental importance of technics in an unprecedented way, in turn pushing his thinking beyond other important philosophical influences such as Bergson, Simondon, and Derrida. Stiegler’s distinctive attention to technics is thus shown to be an essential factor in his prescient political diagnostics.