The sound of trust: Philosophy as generative harmonics in Hegel and Simondon

This paper presents a comparative analysis of G.W.F. Hegel and Gilbert Simondon, focusing on their analogous approaches to philosophical soundness, encompassing epistemological correspondence, ontological integration, and the aesthetics of soundness as such. A framework of “generative harmonics” interprets each philosopher’s challenge to both classical concepts of pre-established Harmony and their critical negation within modernity. In turn, their theories model genesis on the basis of variable, propagative ‘noise’ through recursive integration. This is initially explored via the epistemological challenge, as each seeks to reconcile the rigour of modern ‘negative’ soundness with the universal scope of traditional ‘positive’ Harmony. Hegel introduces a presuppositionless methodology toward Absolute knowing, employing the negative feedback of contradictions within the dialectic of subject and substance. Conversely, Simondon proposes an ontogenetic model of pure information, based on the dissolving of forms to a pre-individual reality and the positive feedback of transductive relations. The paper then contrasts the propagative aspects of Hegel’s Logic, Nature, and Spirit with Simondon’s phases of the pre-individual, individual, and transindividual. Finally, it outlines the overarching philosophical implications of these theories, juxtaposing Simondon’s definition of philosophy as the “aesthetics of aesthetics” with Hegel’s notion of philosophical consciousness as the “mistrust of mistrust”.