Jean Baudrillard

From Wikinfo

File:Jeanbaudrillard.jpg Jean Baudrillard (born in Reims, France in 1929) is a culture and media theorist and philosopher. His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and post-structuralism. He is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Paris.

Jean Baudrillard is famous for his investigations into the concept of hyperreality, and in particular hyperreality in American society. According to Baudrillard, America has constructed itself an artificial world that is more "“real” than real," and where those inhabiting it are obsessed with timelessness, perfection, and objectification of the self. Furthermore, authenticity has been replaced by copy (thus reality is replaced by a virtual substitute), and nothing is actually “real,” though those engaged in the illusion are incapable of realizing this fact. Baudrillard's core philosophy essentially revolves around this understanding of both the "simulation" and "simulacrum" and their relation to the modern world.

On modern warfare

Shortly before the Persian Gulf War of 1991, Baudrillard predicted that the war would not actually take place. After the Allied withdrawal of forces from Iraq, he stated that he had been correct, and that no war had actually occurred. The reality of the war, where people fight for a cause and are killed, had been replaced by a simulated war that is delivered to television screens across the world. America was engaged in an illusion that it was fighting, much as the mind engages with a video game, where the experience tricks the consciousness into believing it is an active participant in something that is not happening. While the actual combat may have been real, only a small number of individuals experienced it and they were on the other side of the world. The "war" that was broadcast on television, and therefore the war as it is understood by the majority of people, was not actually real.

Baudrillard’s Object Value System

Objects, but in particular consumer objects, can be thought of as being valued in 4 ways:

The functional value of an object is its instrumental purpose. (A pen writes.)
The exchange value of an object is its economic value. (A pen is worth three pencils.)
The symbolic exchange value of an object is its arbitrarily assigned and agreed value. (A pen represents a graduation present or a speaker’s gift.)
The sign exchange value of an object represents its value in a system of objects. (A pen is part of a desk set, or a particular pen confers social status.)

Bibliography

Unless stated otherwise, publication dates given are those of the original French language editions, and not those of their English translations or subsequent revised editions.