Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the s ...

and

hyperreality Described by Jean Baudrillard, the concept of hyperreality captures the inability to distinguish "The Real" (a term borrowed from Jacques Lacan) from the signifier of it. This is more prominent in technologically advanced societies. Hyperreality ...

. Baudrillard wrote about diverse subjects, including

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...

, gender relations, critique of economy,

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

, social history,

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, Western foreign policy, and

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

. Among his best known works are ''Seduction'' (1978), ''

Simulacra and Simulation ''Simulacra and Simulation'' (french: Simulacres et Simulation) is a 1981 philosophical treatise by the philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard, in which the author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and so ...

'' (1981), ''America'' (1986), and '' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place'' (1991). His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

. Baudrillard: "I have nothing to do with postmodernism."MLA Brennan, Eugene. Review of Pourquoi la guerre aujourd’hui?, by Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida. French Studies: A Quarterly Review, vol. 71 no. 3, 2017, p. 449-449. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/666299. APA Brennan, E. (2017). eview of the book Pourquoi la guerre aujourd’hui?, by Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida French Studies: A Quarterly Review 71(3), 449. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/666299. Chicago Brennan, Eugene. Review of Pourquoi la guerre aujourd’hui?, by Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida. French Studies: A Quarterly Review 71, no. 3 (2017): 449-449. muse.jhu.edu/article/666299. Endnote TY - JOUR T1 - Pourquoi la guerre aujourd’hui? by Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida (review) A1 - Brennan, Eugene JF - French Studies: A Quarterly Review VL - 71 IS - 3 SP - 449 EP - 449 PY - 2017 PB - Oxford University Press SN - 1468-2931 UR - https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/8/article/666299 N1 - Volume 71, Number 3, July 2017 ER - Nevertheless, Baudrillard has also ''opposed'' post-structuralism and had distanced himself from postmodernism.

Transmodernism Transmodernism is a philosophical and cultural movement founded by Argentinian-Mexican philosopher Enrique Dussel.Cole, MikePsychology Press, 2008, p. 68 He refers to himself as a transmodernist and wrote a series of essays criticising the postmo ...

is "better terms than “postmodernism”. It is not about modernity; it is about every system that has developed its mode of expression to the extent that it surpasses itself and its own logic. This is what I am trying to analyze." "There is no longer any

ontologically In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

secret substance. I perceive this to be nihilism rather than postmodernism. To me, nihilism is a good thing – I am a nihilist, not a postmodernist." "Paul Virilio uses the term 'transpolitical'."

Life

Baudrillard was born in Reims, northeastern France, on 27 July 1929. His grandparents were farm workers and his father a gendarme. During high school (at the Lycée at Reims), he became aware of pataphysics via philosophy professor Emmanuel Peillet, which is said to be crucial for understanding Baudrillard's later thought.Francois L'Yvonnet, ed., Cahiers de l'Herne special volume on Baudrillard, Editions de l'Herne, 2004 He became the first of his family to attend university when he moved to Paris to attend the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. There he studied German language and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, which led him to begin teaching the subject at several different lycées, both Parisian and provincial, from 1960 until 1966. While teaching, Baudrillard began to publish reviews of literature and translated the works of such authors as

Peter Weiss Peter Ulrich Weiss (8 November 1916 – 10 May 1982) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist, and experimental filmmaker of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays ''Marat/Sade'' and ''The Investigation'' and hi ...

, Bertolt Brecht,

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann. While teaching German, Baudrillard began to transfer to sociology, eventually completing and publishing in 1968 his doctoral thesis ''Le Système des Objets'' ('' The System of Objects'') under the dissertation committee of

Henri Lefebvre Henri Lefebvre ( , ; 16 June 1901 – 29 June 1991) was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of s ...

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popula ...

, and

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence ...

. Subsequently, he began teaching Sociology at the

Paris X Nanterre Paris Nanterre University (French: ''Université Paris Nanterre''), formerly Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Paris, France. It is one of the most prestigious French universities, ma ...

, a university campus just outside Paris which would become heavily involved in the events of

May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) * CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. * RAF Strike ...

. During this time, Baudrillard worked closely with Philosopher Humphrey De Battenburge, who described Baudrillard as a "visionary". At Nanterre he took up a position as ''Maître Assistant'' (Assistant Professor), then ''Maître de Conférences'' (Associate Professor), eventually becoming a professor after completing his accreditation, ''L'Autre par lui-même'' (''The Other by Himself''). In 1970, Baudrillard made the first of his many trips to the United States (

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

, Colorado), and in 1973, the first of several trips to

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

, Japan. He was given his first camera in 1981 in Japan, which led to him becoming a photographer. In 1986 he moved to IRIS (Institut de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Économique) at the Université de Paris-IX Dauphine, where he spent the latter part of his teaching career. During this time he had begun to move away from sociology as a discipline (particularly in its "classical" form), and, after ceasing to teach full-time, he rarely identified himself with any particular discipline, although he remained linked to academia. During the 1980s and 1990s his books had gained a wide audience, and in his last years he became, to an extent, an intellectual celebrity, being published often in the French- and English-speaking popular press. He nonetheless continued supporting the Institut de Recherche sur l'Innovation Sociale at the

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

and was '' Satrap'' at the Collège de Pataphysique. Baudrillard taught at the

European Graduate School The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta. History It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, P ...

Saas-Fee Saas-Fee () is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The village is situated on a high mountain plateau at 1,800 meters (5,900 feet), surrounded ...

, Switzerland, and collaborated at the Canadian theory, culture, and technology review '' Ctheory'', where he was abundantly cited. He also purportedly participated in the ''International Journal of Baudrillard Studies'' (as of 2022 hosted on

Bishop's University Bishop's University (french: Université Bishop's) is a small English-language liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Bishop of Quebec, George Mountain, w ...

domain) from its inception in 2004 until his death. In 1999–2000, his photographs were exhibited at the

Maison européenne de la photographie The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP; European house of photography), located in the historic heart of Paris, is a center for contemporary photographic art opened in February 1996. Location and activities The Hotel Henault de Cantobre, ...

in Paris. In 2004, Baudrillard attended the major conference on his work, "Baudrillard and the Arts", at the

Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former mun ...

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, Germany.

Personal life

Grave of Jean BAUDRILLARD in Montparnasse Cemetery

Baudrillard enjoyed baroque music; a favorite composer was Claudio Monteverdi. He also favored rock music such as '' The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Baudrillard did his writing using "his old

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

, never at the computer". He has stated that a computer is not "merely a handier and more complex kind of typewriter", whereas with a typewriter he has a "physical relation to writing". Baudrillard was married twice. He and his first wife Lucile Baudrillard had two children, Gilles and Anne. In 1970 during his first marriage, Baudrillard met 25 year old Marine Dupuis when she arrived at the

Paris Nanterre University Paris Nanterre University (French: ''Université Paris Nanterre''), formerly Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Paris, France. It is one of the most prestigious French universities, m ...

where he was a professor. Marine went on to be a media artistic director. They married in 1994 when he was 65. Diagnosed with cancer in 2005, Baudrillard battled the disease for two years from his apartment on Rue Sainte-Beuve, Paris, dying at the age of 77. Marine Baudrillard curates ''Cool Memories'', an association of Jean Baudrillard's friends.

Key concepts

Baudrillard's published work emerged as part of a generation of French thinkers including: Gilles Deleuze,

Jean-François Lyotard Jean-François Lyotard (; ; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and ...

, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Jacques Lacan who all shared an interest in

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

, and he is often seen as a part of the

post-structuralist Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

philosophical school. In common with many post-structuralists, his arguments consistently draw upon the notion that signification and meaning are both only understandable in terms of how particular words or "signs" interrelate. Baudrillard thought, as do many post-structuralists, that meaning is brought about through ''systems'' of signs working together. Following on from the structuralist

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

Ferdinand de Saussure, Baudrillard argued that meaning (''value'') is created through ''difference''—through what something is not (so "dog" means "dog" because it is not-"cat", not-"goat", not-"tree", etc.). In fact, he viewed meaning as near enough

self-referential Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philoso ...

: objects, images of objects, words and signs are situated in a web of meaning; one object's meaning is only understandable through its relation to the meaning of other objects; for instance, one thing's prestige relates to another's mundanity. From this starting point Baudrillard theorized broadly about human society based upon this kind of self-referentiality. His writing portrays societies always searching for a sense of meaning—or a "total" understanding of the world—that remains consistently elusive. In contrast to

Post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

(such as Michel Foucault), for whom the formations of knowledge emerge only as the result of relations of power, Baudrillard developed theories in which the excessive, fruitless search for total knowledge leads almost inevitably to a kind of delusion. In Baudrillard's view, the (human) subject may try to understand the (non-human) object, but because the object can only be understood according to what it signifies (and because the process of signification immediately involves a web of other signs from which it is distinguished) this never produces the desired results. The subject is, rather, ''seduced'' (in the original Latin sense: ) by the object. He argued therefore that, in the final analysis, a complete understanding of the minutiae of human life is impossible, and when people are seduced into thinking otherwise they become drawn toward a " simulated" version of reality, or, to use one of his

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s, a state of "

." This is not to say that the world becomes unreal, but rather that the faster and more comprehensively societies begin to bring reality together into one supposedly coherent picture, the more insecure and unstable it looks and the more fearful societies become. Reality, in this sense, "dies out." Accordingly, Baudrillard argued that the excess of signs and of meaning in late 20th century "global" society had caused (quite paradoxically) an effacement of reality. In this world neither liberalism, liberal nor Marxist utopias are any longer believed in. We live, he argued, not in a "

global village Global village describes the phenomenon of the entire world becoming more interconnected as the result of the propagation of media technologies throughout the world. The term was coined by Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan in his books ' ...

", to use Marshall McLuhan's phrase, but rather in a world that is ever more easily petrified by even the smallest event. Because the "global" world operates at the level of the exchange of signs and commodities, it becomes ever more blind to ''symbolic'' acts such as, for example, terrorism. In Baudrillard's work the symbolic realm (which he develops a perspective on through the

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

work of Marcel Mauss and Georges Bataille) is seen as quite distinct from that of signs and signification. Signs can be exchanged like commodities; symbols, on the other hand, operate quite differently: they are exchanged, like gifts, sometimes violently as a form of potlatch. Baudrillard, particularly in his later work, saw the "global" society as without this "symbolic" element, and therefore symbolically (if not militarily) defenseless against acts such as the Rushdie Fatwa or, indeed, the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States and its military and economic establishment.

The object value system

Jean Baudrillard, Pour une critique de l'economie maitrier

In his early books, such as '' The System of Objects'', ''For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign'', and ', Baudrillard's main focus is upon consumerism, and how different objects are consumed in different ways. At this time Baudrillard's political outlook was loosely associated with

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

(and

Situationism The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

), but in these books he differed from

in one significant way. For Baudrillard, as for the situationists, it was consumption rather than production that was the main driver of capitalist society. Baudrillard came to this conclusion by criticising Marx's concept of "

use-value Use value (german: Gebrauchswert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, o ...

." Baudrillard thought that both Marx's and Adam Smith's economic thought accepted the idea of genuine needs relating to genuine uses too easily and too simply. Baudrillard argued, drawing from Georges Bataille, that needs are constructed, rather than innate. He stressed that all purchases, because they always signify something ''socially'', have their fetishistic side. Objects always, drawing from

, "say something" about their users. And this was, for him, why consumption was and remains more important than production: because the "ideological genesis of needs" precedes the production of goods to meet those needs. He wrote that there are four ways of an object obtaining value. The four value-making processes are:Baudrillard, Jean. 1983. ''For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign''. London:

Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of '' New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...

. . # The functional value: an object's instrumental purpose (use value). Example: a pen writes; a refrigerator cools. # The exchange value: an object's economic value. Example: One pen may be worth three pencils, while one refrigerator may be worth the salary earned by three months of work. # The symbolic value: an object's value assigned by a subject ''in relation to another subject'' (i.e., between a giver and receiver). Example: a pen might symbolize a student's school graduation gift or a commencement speaker's gift; or a diamond may be a symbol of publicly declared marital love. # The sign value: an object's value within a ''system'' of objects. Example: a particular pen may, while having no added functional benefit, signify prestige relative to another pen; a diamond ring may have no function at all, but may suggest particular social values, such as taste or class. Baudrillard's earlier books were attempts to argue that the first two of these values are not simply associated, but are disrupted by the third and, particularly, the fourth. Later, Baudrillard rejected Marxism totally ('' The Mirror of Production'' and ''Symbolic Exchange and Death''). But the focus on the difference between sign value (which relates to commodity exchange) and symbolic value (which relates to Maussian gift exchange) remained in his work up until his death. Indeed, it came to play a more and more important role, particularly in his writings on world events.

''Simulacra and Simulation''

As Baudrillard developed his work throughout the 1980s, he moved from economic theory to mediation and mass communication. Although retaining his interest in Saussurean

and the logic of symbolic exchange (as influenced by anthropologist Marcel Mauss), Baudrillard turned his attention to the work of Marshall McLuhan, developing ideas about how the nature of social relations is determined by the forms of communication that a society employs. In so doing, Baudrillard progressed beyond both Saussure's and

's formal semiology to consider the implications of a historically understood version of structural semiology. According to Kornelije Kvas, "Baudrillard rejects the structuralist principle of the equivalence of different forms of linguistic organization, the binary principle that contains oppositions such as: true-false, real-unreal, center-periphery. He denies any possibility of a (mimetic) duplication of reality; reality mediated through language becomes a game of signs. In his theoretical system all distinctions between the real and the fictional, between a copy and the original, disappear". Simulation, Baudrillard claims, is the current stage of the simulacrum: all is composed of references with no referents, a hyperreality. Baudrillard argues that this is part of a historical progression. In the Renaissance, the dominant simulacrum was in the form of the counterfeit, where people or objects appear to stand for a real referent that does not exist (for instance, royalty, nobility, holiness, etc.). With the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, the dominant simulacrum becomes the product, which can be propagated on an endless production line. In current times, the dominant simulacrum is the model, which by its nature already stands for endless reproducibility, and is itself already reproduced.

The end of history and meaning

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, one of Baudrillard's most common themes was

historicity Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity denot ...

, or, more specifically, how present-day societies utilise the notions of progress and modernity in their political choices. He argued, much like the political theorist

Francis Fukuyama Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar and writer. Fukuyama is known for his book ''The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992), which argue ...

, that history had ended or "vanished" with the spread of

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

; but, unlike Fukuyama, Baudrillard averred that this end should not be understood as the culmination of history's progress, but as the collapse of the very ''idea'' of historical progress. For Baudrillard, the end of the Cold War did not represent an ideological victory; rather, it signaled the disappearance of utopian visions shared between both the political Right and Left. Giving further evidence of his opposition toward Marxist visions of global communism and liberal visions of global civil society, Baudrillard contended that the ends they hoped for had always been illusions; indeed, as ''The Illusion of the End'' argues, he thought the idea of an end itself was nothing more than a misguided dream: Within a society subject to and ruled by fast-paced electronic communication and global information networks the collapse of this façade was always going to be, he thought, inevitable. Employing a quasi-scientific vocabulary that attracted the ire of the physicist

Alan Sokal Alan David Sokal (; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. He is a critic of postmo ...

, Baudrillard wrote that the speed society moved at had destabilized the linearity of history: "we have the

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

that has smashed the referential orbit of things once and for all." In making this argument Baudrillard found some affinity with the postmodern philosophy of

, who argued that in the late 20th century there was no longer any room for "

metanarrative A metanarrative (also meta-narrative and grand narrative; french: métarécit) is a narrative ''about'' narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet ...

s." (The triumph of a coming communism being one such metanarrative.) But, in addition to simply lamenting this collapse of history, Baudrillard also went beyond Lyotard and attempted to analyse how the idea of positive progress was being employed in spite of the notion's declining validity. Baudrillard argued that although genuine belief in a universal endpoint of history, wherein all conflicts would find their resolution, had been deemed redundant, universality was still a notion utilised in world politics as an excuse for actions. Universal values which, according to him, no one any longer believed universal were and are still rhetorically employed to justify otherwise unjustifiable choices. The means, he wrote, are there even though the ends are no longer believed in, and are employed in order to hide the present's harsh realities (or, as he would have put it, unrealities). "In

the Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

, universalization was viewed as unlimited growth and forward progress. Today, by contrast, universalization is expressed as a forward ''escape''." This involves the notion of "

escape velocity In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for a free, non- propelled object to escape from the gravitational influence of a primary body, thus reaching an infinite distance from it. It is typically ...

" as outlined in ''The Vital Illusion'' (2000), which in turn, results in the postmodern ''fallacy of escape velocity'' on which the postmodern mind and critical view cannot, by definition, ever truly break free from the all-encompassing "

" sphere of discourse.

Hyperreality

Political commentary

On the Bosnian War

Baudrillard reacted to the West's indifference to the Bosnian War in writings, mostly in essays in his column for '' Libération''. More specifically, he expressed his view on Europe's unwillingness to respond to "aggression and genocide in Bosnia," in which "New Europe" revealed itself to be a "sham." He criticized the Western media and intellectuals for their passivity, and for taking the role of bystanders, engaging in ineffective, hypocritical and self-serving action, and the public for its inability to distinguish ''simulacra'' from real world happenings, in which real death and destruction in Bosnia seemed unreal. He was determined in his columns to openly name the perpetrators, Serbs, and call their actions in Bosnia aggression and genocide.

On the Persian Gulf War

Baudrillard's provocative 1991 book, '' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place'',Baudrillard, Jean. 2004 991 '' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place''. raised his public profile as an academic and political commentator. He argued that the first

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

was the inverse of the Clausewitzian formula: not "the continuation of politics by other means," but "the continuation of the absence of politics by other means." Accordingly,

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

was not fighting the Coalition, but using the lives of his soldiers as a form of sacrifice to preserve his power. The Coalition fighting the

Iraqi military The Iraqi Armed Forces ( ar, القوات المسلحة العراقية romanized: ''Al-Quwwat Al-Musallahah Al-Iraqiyyah'') ( Kurdish: هێزە چەکدارەکانی عێراق) are the military forces of the Republic of Iraq. They consist ...

was merely dropping 10,000 tonnes of bombs daily, as if proving to themselves that there was an enemy to fight. So, too, were the Western media complicit, presenting the war in real time, by recycling images of war to propagate the notion that the U.S.-led Coalition and the Iraqi government were actually fighting, but, such was not the case. Saddam Hussein did not use his military capacity (the

Iraqi Air Force The Iraqi Air Force (IQAF or IrAF) ( ar, القوات الجوية العراقية, Al Quwwat al Jawwiyah al Iraqiyyah}) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It is responsible for the defense of Iraqi airspace as well ...

). His power was not weakened, evinced by his easy suppression of the 1991 internal uprisings that followed afterwards. Over all, little had changed. Saddam remained undefeated, the "victors" were not victorious, and thus there was no war—i.e., the Gulf War did not occur. The book was originally a series of articles in the British newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and the French newspaper '' Libération'', published in three parts: "The Gulf War Will Not Take Place," published during the American military and rhetorical buildup; "The Gulf War Is Not Taking Place," published during military action; and "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place" published afterwards. Some critics, like Christopher Norris accused Baudrillard of instant revisionism; a denial of the physical action of the conflict (which was related to his denial of reality in general). Consequently, Baudrillard was accused of lazy amoralism, cynical scepticism, and Berkelian subjective idealism. Sympathetic commentators such as William Merrin, in his book ''Baudrillard and the Media'', have argued that Baudrillard was more concerned with the West's technological and political dominance and the globalization of its commercial interests, and what that means for the present possibility of war. Merrin argued that Baudrillard was not denying that something had happened, but merely questioning whether that something was in fact war or a bilateral "atrocity masquerading as a war." Merrin viewed the accusations of amorality as redundant and based on a misreading. In Baudrillard's own words:

On the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001

In his essay, "The Spirit of Terrorism," Baudrillard characterises the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 on the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

in New York City as the "absolute event."Baudrillard, Jean.

001 001, O01, or OO1 may refer to: *1 (number), a number, a numeral *001, fictional British agent, see 00 Agent *001, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian fire brigade (until 1986) *AM-RB 001, the code-name for the Aston Martin Valkyrie ...

2010.
The Spirit of Terrorism
" translated by R. Bloul.

. . Baudrillard contrasts the "absolute event" of 11 September 2001 with "global events," such as the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. The essay culminates in Baudrillard regarding the U.S.-led

as a " non-event," or an "event that did not happen." Seeking to understand them as a reaction to the technological and political expansion of capitalist globalization, rather than as a war of religiously based or civilization-based warfare, he described the absolute event and its consequences as follows: In accordance with his theory of society, Baudrillard portrayed the attacks as a symbolic reaction to the inexorable rise of a world based on commodity exchange.

Reception

This stance was criticised on two counts.

Richard Wolin Richard Wolin (born 1952) is an American intellectual historian who writes on 20th Century European philosophy, particularly German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the group of thinkers known collectively as the Frankfurt School. Life Wolin gr ...

(in ''The Seduction of Unreason'') forcefully accused Baudrillard and Slavoj Žižek of all but celebrating the terrorist attacks, essentially claiming that the United States received what it deserved. Žižek, however, countered that accusation to Wolin's analysis as a form of intellectual barbarism in the journal '' Critical Inquiry'', saying that Wolin failed to see the difference between fantasising about an event and stating that one is deserving of that event. Merrin (in ''Baudrillard and the Media'') argued that Baudrillard's position affords the terrorists a type of moral superiority. In the journal ''

Economy and Society ''Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology'' (1921; ; or simply ''Economy and Society'') is a book by political economist and sociologist Max Weber, published posthumously in Germany by his wife Marianne. Alongside ''The Prote ...

'', Merrin further noted that Baudrillard gives the symbolic facets of society unfair privilege above semiotic concerns. Second, authors questioned whether the attacks were unavoidable.

Bruno Latour Bruno Latour (; 22 June 1947 – 9 October 2022) was a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist.Wheeler, Will. ''Bruno Latour: Documenting Human and Nonhuman Associations'' Critical Theory for Library and Information Science. Libraries ...

, in ''Critical Inquiry,'' argued that Baudrillard believed that their destruction was forced by the society that created them, alluding to the notion that the Towers were "brought down by their own weight." In Latour's view, this was because Baudrillard conceived only of society in terms of a symbolic and semiotic dualism. Latour lamented of Baudrillard, "What has become of

critique Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is commonly understood as fault finding and negative judgment,Rodolphe Gasché (2007''The honor of thinking: critique, theory, philosophy''p ...

when a book that claims that no plane ever crashed into the Pentagon can be a bestseller? I am ashamed to say that the author was French, too.".

Debate with Jacques Derrida

19 February 2003, with the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

impending, moderated a debate entitled ''"Pourquoi La Guerre Aujourd’hui?"'' between Baudrillard and Jacques Derrida, co-hosted by ''Major's Institute for Advanced Studies in Psychoanalysis'' and '' Le Monde Diplomatique''. The debate discussed the relation between terrorist attacks and the invasion. On the Iraq War,

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

professor Vincent Leitch states that "Where Baudrillard situates 9/11 as the primary motivating force, Derrida argues that the Iraq War was planned long before 9/11, and that 9/11 plays a secondary role".

''The Agony of Power''

During 2005, Baudrillard wrote three short pieces and gave a brief magazine interview, all treating similar ideas; following his death in 2007, the four pieces were collected and published posthumously as ''The Agony of Power'', a polemic against

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

itself. The first piece, "From Domination to Hegemony", contrasts its two subjects, modes of power; domination stands for historical, traditional power relations, while hegemony stands for modern, more sophisticated power relations as realized by states and businesses. Baudrillard decried the "cynicism" with which contemporary businesses openly state their

business model A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, soci ...

s. For example, he cited French television channel TF1 executive Patrick Le Lay who stated that his business' job was "to help

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...

sell its products." Baudrillard lamented that such honesty pre-empted and thus robbed the Left of its traditional role of critiquing governments and businesses: "In fact, Le Lay takes away the only power we had left. He steals our denunciation."Baudrillard, Jean. 0072010. ''The Agony of Power'', translated by A. Hodges, Semiotext(e) Intervention Series 6. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e). . Consequently, Baudrillard stated that "power itself must be abolished—and not solely in the refusal to be dominated…but also, just as violently, in the refusal to dominate." The latter pieces included further analysis of the September 11 terrorist attacks, using the metaphor of the Native American potlatch to describe both American and Muslim societies, specifically the American state versus the hijackers. In the pieces' context, "potlatch" referred not to the gift-giving aspect of the ritual, but rather its wealth-destroying aspect: "The terrorists' potlatch against the West is their own death. Our potlatch is indignity, immodesty, obscenity, degradation and abjection." This criticism of the West carried notes of Baudrillard's simulacrum, the above cynicism of business, and contrast between Muslim and Western societies:

We he Westthrow this indifference and abjection at others like a challenge: the challenge to defile themselves in return, to deny their values, to strip naked, confess, admit—to respond to a nihilism equal to our own.

Reception

One of Baudrillard's editors, Mark Poster, remarked: Poster, Mark. 2002. "Introduction" in ''Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings'' (2nd ed.), edited by M. Poster. Stanford: Stanford University Press. . But Poster still argued for his contemporary relevance; he also attempted to refute the most extreme of Baudrillard's critics, the likes of

and Christopher Norris who see him as a purveyor of a form of reality-denying irrationalism: Only one of the two major confrontational books on Baudrillard's thought—Christopher Norris's ''Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the Gulf War''—seeks to reject his media theory and position on "the real" out of hand. The other—postmodern theorist

Douglas Kellner Douglas Kellner (born May 31, 1943) is an American academic who works at the intersection of "third-generation" critical theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School, and in cultural studies in the ...

's ''Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond''—seeks rather to analyse Baudrillard's relation to postmodernism (a concept with which Baudrillard has had a continued, if uneasy and rarely explicit, relationship) and to present a Marxist counter. Regarding the former, William Merrin (discussed above) published more than one denunciation of Norris' position. The latter Baudrillard himself characterised as reductive. Kellner commented that Baudrillard's views were 'ultra-leftist' in his writing of ''Symbolic Exchange and Death''. Baudrillard later admitted that his views could be classified as right-wing "in objective terms", but found the

Left–right political spectrum The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions characteristic of left-right politics, ideologies and parties with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to position ...

arbitrary. Mark Fisher pointed out that Baudrillard "is condemned, sometimes lionised, as the melancholic observer of a departed reality", asserting that Baudrillard "was certainly melancholic". Poster stated that "As the politics of the sixties receded so did Baudrillard's radicalism: from a position of firm leftism he gradually moved to one of bleak fatalism." Richard G. Smith, David B. Clarke and Marcus A. Doel instead consider Baudrillard "an extreme optimist". In an exchange between critical theorist

McKenzie Wark McKenzie Wark (born 1961) is an Australian-born writer and scholar. Wark is known for her writings on media theory, critical theory, new media, and the Situationist International. Her best known works are '' A Hacker Manifesto'' and '' Gamer T ...

and

professor

Geert Lovink Geert Lovink (born 1959, Amsterdam) is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, whose goals are to explore, document and feed the potential for socio-economical change of the new media field through events, publications and open ...

, Wark remarked of Baudrillard that "Everything he wrote was marked by a radical sadness and yet invariably expressed in the happiest of forms." Chris Turner's English translation of Baudrillard's ''Cool Memories: 1980-1985'' writes, "I accuse myself of... being profoundly carnal and melancholy...AMEN".

Legacy

Native American (

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawat ...

) writer

Gerald Vizenor Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and ...

made extensive use of Baudrillard's concepts of simulation in his critical work.

In popular culture

The Wachowskis Lana Wachowski (born June 21, 1965, formerly known as Larry Wachowski) and Lilly Wachowski (born December 29, 1967, formerly known as Andy Wachowski) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans ...

said that Baudrillard influenced ''

The Matrix ''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in ''The Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantolia ...

'' (1999), and Neo hides money and disks containing information in ''Simulacra and Simulation''.

Adam Gopnik Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 1986. He is the author of nine books ...

wondered whether Baudrillard, who had not embraced the movie, was "thinking of suing for a screen credit," but Baudrillard himself disclaimed any connection to ''The Matrix'', calling it at best a misreading of his ideas. Some reviewers have noted that Charlie Kaufman's film '' Synecdoche, New York'' seems inspired by Baudrillard's ''Simulacra and Simulation''. The album '' Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?'' by rock band Deerhunter was influenced by Baudrillard's essay of the same name.

Bibliography

Books (English translations)

* 1968. '' The System of Objects'' * 1970. ' * 1972. ''For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign'' * 1973. '' The Mirror of Production'' * 1976. ''Symbolic Exchange and Death'' * 1977. ''Forget Foucault'' * 1979. ''Seduction'' * 1981. ''

'' * 1982. '' In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities'' * 1983. ''Fatal Strategies'' * 1983. ''Simulations'' * 1986. ''America'' * 1987. ''Cool Memories 1980-1985'' * 1987. ''The Ecstasy of Communication'' * 1990. ''The Transparency of Evil'' * 1991. '' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place'' * 1992. ''The Illusion of the End'' * 1995. ''The Perfect Crime'' * 1996. ''Cool Memories II 1987-1990'' * 1997. ''Fragments: Cool Memories III 1990-1995'' * 1998. ''Paroxysm: Interviews with Philippe Petit'' * 1999. ''Impossible Exchange'' * 2000. ''Passwords'' * 2000. '' The Singular Objects of Architecture'' * 2000. ''The Vital Illusion'' * 2002. ''The Spirit of Terrorism And Requiem for the Twin Towers'' * 2003. ''Fragments (Interviews with François L'Yvonnet)'' * 2003. ''Cool Memories IV 1995-2000'' * 2005. ''The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact'' * 2005. ''The Conspiracy of Art'' * 2006. ''Utopia Deferred: Writings for Utopie (1967–1978)'' * 2006. ''Cool Memories V 2000-2004'' * 2007. ''Exiles from Dialogue'' * 2008. ''Radical Alterity'' * 2009. ''Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?'' * 2010. ''Carnival and Cannibal, or the Play of Global Antagonisms'' * 2010. ''The Agony of Power'' * 2011. ''Telemorphosis'' * 2014. ''Screened Out'' * 2014. ''The Divine Left: A Chronicle of the Years 1977–1984''

Articles and essays

*1996. "No Pity for Sarajevo; The West's Serbianization; When the West Stands In for the Dead." Pp. 79–89 in ''This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia''. NYU Press. . *2001.
The Spirit of Terrorism
" '' Telos'' 121(Fall):134–42. * 2005.
Divine Europe
" ''Telos'' 131(Summer):188–90. * 2006.
The Pyres of Autumn
" ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

'' 2(37).
The violence of images, violence against the image.
* ''Radical Thought'' ( CTheory) **https://web.archive.org/web/20160513042009/http://ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=67 *

Interviews

* Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Jocks, Heinz-Norbert: ''Die Fotografie und die Dinge. Ein Gespräch mit Jean Baudrillard.'' In: ''Kunstforum International.'', No: 172, ''Das Ende der Fotografie.'' Editor: Heinz-Norbert Jocks, 2004, p. 70–83. * Smith, Richard G., David B. Clarke, eds. 2015.
Jean Baudrillard: From Hyperreality to Disappearance: Uncollected Interviews
'. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. . * Smith, Richard G., David B. Clarke, eds. 2017.

'. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. .

Audio CDs

* 1997. ''Die Illusion des Endes – Das Ende der Illusion'' 8 minutes + booklet Jean Baudrillard &

Boris Groys Boris Efimovich Groys (born 19 March 1947) is an art critic, media theorist, and philosopher. He is currently a global distinguished professor of Russian and Slavic studies at New York University and senior research fellow at the Karlsruhe Univer ...

. Cologne: supposé. * 2006. ''Die Macht der Verführung'', 5 minutes Cologne: supposé. .

Notes

References

External links

Jean Baudrillard Biography
Archived from th
original
on 20 December 2009. Faculty page at

(biography, bibliography, photos and videos). * *
Jean Baudrillard (1981; translated 1994 by Sheila Glaser), Simulacra and Simulation
archived fro
the original
on 21 May 2013.
Baudrillard; Cultura, Simulacro y régimen de mortandad en el Sistema de los Objetos , EIKASIA
PDF (in Spanish) Adolfo Vásquez Rocca * *
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies
'' Retrieved 9 March 2022
Cool Memories
association of Baudrillard's friends * Bacon's Essays/Of Simulation and Dissimulation by Anglican philosopher

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

Terror And Performance - Asymmetric Warfare, Martyrdom, And Necropolitics
An application of

Achille Mbembe Joseph-Achille Mbembe, known as Achille Mbembe (; born 1957), is a Cameroonian historian, political theorist, and public intellectual who is a research professor in history and politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economy Research at the ...

's study of Necropolitics to Baudrillard's notion of death. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baudrillard, Jean 1929 births 2007 deaths 20th-century French economists 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French historians 21st-century French essayists 21st-century French male writers 21st-century French philosophers 21st-century French economists 21st-century French historians Accelerationism Anti-consumerists Aphorists Architectural theoreticians Architecture critics Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Continental philosophers Critical theorists Critics of Marxism Critics of political economy Cultural critics Epistemologists European Graduate School faculty French anti-capitalists French architectural historians French architecture writers French art historians French male essayists French male non-fiction writers French photographers French social commentators French sociologists Hyperreality theorists Mass media theorists Media critics Metaphilosophers Metaphysicians Moral philosophers Ontologists Pataphysicians Writers from Reims Philosophers of art Philosophers of culture Philosophers of death Philosophers of economics Philosophers of education Philosophers of ethics and morality Philosophers of history Philosophers of language Philosophers of nihilism Philosophers of psychology Philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Philosophers of technology Philosophers of war Philosophy writers Political philosophers Social critics Social philosophers Terrorism studies Theorists on Western civilization University of Paris alumni Writers about activism and social change Writers about globalization Writers about religion and science 20th-century French poets 21st-century French poets French male poets

Life

Personal life

Key concepts

The object value system

''Simulacra and Simulation''

The end of history and meaning

Hyperreality

Political commentary

On the Bosnian War

On the Persian Gulf War

On the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001

Reception

Debate with Jacques Derrida

''The Agony of Power''

Reception

Legacy

In popular culture

Bibliography

Books (English translations)

Articles and essays

Interviews

Audio CDs

See also

Notes

References

External links