Individual - individuation, individuation as a process or operation

What is an individual? The apprentice philosopher's answer: it's a being who is one, unique and the bearer of an identity. (Do you carry your identity card with you?) If it's natural to turn to Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989) for an in-depth reflection on the theme of individual identity, it's because in 1958 Simondon defended his major thesis entitled: L'Individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information. Of course, at the time, it was his secondary thesis that was immediately published, under the title Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (Aubier, 1958). We had to wait until 2005 (Éditions Jérôme Millon, Grenoble: ILFI) to read his main thesis in full, this time enriched with several other texts . The brief quotations given here as an epigraph suggest that Simondon's position is neither that of Aristotle nor Whitehead. Simondon himself, right at the start of his thesis, announces that he considers the traditional hylemorphic scheme (matter/form) inadequate; and he states his own individuation principle: "the principle of individuation... is the complete system in which the genesis of the individual takes place... this system survives itself in the living individual, in the form of a milieu associated with the individual, in which individuation continues to take place... life is thus a perpetuated individuation, an individuation continued through time, prolonging a singularity" (ILFI, ch. 1, Form and Matter, 3, 2, p. 63).