View source for Jean Baudrillard

{{Short description|French sociologist and philosopher (1929–2007)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}

{{Infobox philosopher
|region           = [[Western philosophy]]
|era              = [[20th-century philosophy|20th-]]/[[21st-century philosophy]]
|image            = WikipediaBaudrillard20040612-cropped.png
|caption          = Baudrillard in 2004 at the [[European Graduate School]]
|name             = Jean Baudrillard 
|birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=y|1929|07|27}}
|birth_place      = [[Reims]], France
|death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=y|2007|03|06|1929|07|27}}
|death_place      = Paris, France (6th arrondissement of Paris)
|alma_mater       = [[University of Paris]]
|institutions     = {{unbulleted list | [[Paris X Nanterre]] | [[European Graduate School]]}}
|thesis_title     = Le système des objets 
|thesis_year      = 1968
|doctoral_advisor = [[Henri Lefebvre]]
|school_tradition = {{hlist | 
[[Continental philosophy]]|
[[Post-Marxism]] | 
[['Pataphysics]] | 
[[Post-structuralism]] | 
[[postmodern philosophy|Postmodernism]] | }}
|main_interests = {{hlist | [[Semiotics]] | [[Social philosophy]]  }}
|notable_ideas = {{hlist | [[Hyperreality]] | [[Sign value]] 
}}
}}
'''Jean Baudrillard''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|b|oʊ|d|r|ɪ|j|ɑːr}},<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Baudrillard,+Jean |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414011242/https://www.lexico.com/definition/baudrillard,_jean |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-04-14 |title=Baudrillard, Jean |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|b|oʊ|d|r|i|ˈ|ɑːr}}; {{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃ bodʁijaʁ|lang}}; {{nowrap|27 July 1929}} – 6 March 2007) was a French [[sociology|sociologist]] and philosopher with an interest in [[cultural studies]]. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as [[hyperreality]]. Baudrillard wrote about diverse subjects, including [[consumerism]], [[critique of economy]], [[social history]], [[aesthetics]], Western [[foreign policy]], and popular culture. Among his best-known works are ''[[Michel Foucault#Forget Foucault|Forget Foucault]]'' (1977),  ''Seduction'' (1978), ''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]'' (1981), {{nowrap|''America'' (1986)}}, and ''[[The Gulf War Did Not Take Place]]'' (1991). His work is frequently associated with [[Postmodern philosophy|postmodernism]] and specifically [[post-structuralism]].<ref>{{harvp|Kellner|2019}}; {{harvp|Aylesworth|2015}}; {{harvp|Redhead|2013}}</ref><ref name='Guerre'>{{cite journal |id={{Project MUSE|666299}} |last1=Brennan |first1=Eugene |title=Pourquoi la guerre aujourd'hui? by Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida (review) |journal=French Studies: A Quarterly Review |date=2017 |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=449 |doi=10.1093/fs/knx092 }}</ref> Nevertheless, Baudrillard had also opposed {{nowrap|post-structuralism}},<ref>{{harvp|Attias|2011}}; {{harvp|Poole|2007a}}; {{harvp|Poole|2007b}}; {{harvp|Poole|2007c}}; {{harvp|Wolters|2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://euppublishingblog.com/2015/07/15/nobody-needs-french-theory-an-extract-from-jean-baudrillard-from-hyperreality-to-disappearance/ |first1= |last1= |title='Nobody Needs French Theory' – an extract from Jean Baudrillard: From Hyperreality to Disappearance |website=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |date=15 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230105202753/https://euppublishingblog.com/2015/07/15/nobody-needs-french-theory-an-extract-from-jean-baudrillard-from-hyperreality-to-disappearance/ |archive-date=5 January 2023 |url-status=live |access-date=16 February 2023}}</ref> and had distanced himself from postmodernism.<ref name ="pass">{{harvp|Antonio|2007}}: "Asked about postmodernism, Baudrillard said: “I have nothing to do with it. I don’t know who came up with the term... But I have no faith in ‘postmodernism’ as an analytical term. When people say: ‘you are a postmodernist,’ I answer: “Well why not?’ The term simply avoids the issue itself.” He declared that he was a “nihilist, not a postmodernist.” (Baudrillard and Lie 2007:3–4)."; {{harvp|Zurbrugg|2006|pp=482–500}}; {{harvp|Aylesworth|2015}}; {{harvp|Kellner|2019}}</ref><ref name="disappear">{{Cite web |date=22 January 2021 |title=The art of disappearing – BAUDRILLARD NOW |url=https://www.baudrillard-scijournal.com/the-art-of-disappearing/ |access-date=2022-03-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122100701/https://www.baudrillard-scijournal.com/the-art-of-disappearing/ |archive-date=22 January 2021 |quote=[[Transmodernism]] 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 [[ontology|ontologically]] secret [[Substance theory|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'."}}</ref>

== {{anchor|Life}}Biography ==
Baudrillard was born in [[Reims]], northeastern France, on 27 July 1929. His grandparents were farm workers and his father a [[Gendarmerie|gendarme]]. During high school (at the [[Lycée]] at Reims), he became aware of '[[pataphysics]], a [[parody]] of the philosophy of science, via philosophy professor Emmanuel Peillet (1914-1973), which is said to be crucial for understanding Baudrillard's later thought.<ref name="LYvonnet">Francois L'Yvonnet, ed., Cahiers de l'Herne special volume on Baudrillard, Editions de l'Herne, 2004</ref>{{rp|317}} He became the first of his family to attend university when he moved to Paris to attend the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]].{{sfn|Poole|2007b}} There he studied German language and [[German literature|literature]],<ref>In 1948, he completed his ''{{Interlanguage link|diplôme d'études supérieures|fr}}'' (roughly equivalent to an [[Master of Arts|MA]] thesis) on [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] and [[Martin Luther]] (see [http://www.larevuedesressources.org/+journees-jean-baudrillard-musee-du-quai-branly-paris-17-18-09-2010,863+.html Journées Jean Baudrillard Musée du quai Branly Paris 17-18/09/2010]).</ref> which led him to begin teaching the subject at several different lycées, both Parisian and provincial, from 1960 until 1966.<ref name="LYvonnet"/>{{rp|317}}

=== Teaching career ===
While teaching, Baudrillard began to publish reviews of literature and translated the works of such authors as [[Peter Weiss]], [[Bertolt Brecht]], [[Karl Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels]], and [[Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann]].<ref name="LYvonnet"/>{{rp|317–328}} 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]], [[Roland Barthes]], and [[Pierre Bourdieu]]. Subsequently, he began teaching Sociology at the [[Paris X Nanterre]], a university campus just outside Paris which would become heavily involved in the uprising of [[May 1968 in France|May 1968]].<ref name="TIOE">''The Intelligence of Evil'', Berg (2005), Introduction and English translation by Chris Turner 2005 {{ISBN|9781845203276}}</ref>{{rp|2(Introduction)}} During this time, Baudrillard worked closely with philosopher Humphrey De Battenburge, who described Baudrillard as a "visionary".<ref>{{cite book |last=Simmons |first=Arthur |date=1982 |title=French Philosophers in the 20th Century |page=9 |publisher=MacMillan |location=London}}</ref> At Nanterre he took up a position as ''Maître Assistant'' (Assistant Professor), then {{lang|fr|Maître de Conférences}} (Associate Professor), eventually becoming a professor after completing his accreditation, {{lang|fr|L'Autre par lui-même}} (''The Other by Himself'').

In 1970, Baudrillard made the first of his many trips to the United States ([[Aspen, Colorado|Aspen]], Colorado), and in 1973, the first of several trips to [[Kyoto]], Japan. He was given his first camera in 1981 in Japan, which led to him becoming a photographer.<ref name="LYvonnet" />{{rp|317–328}} In 1986, he moved to IRIS (Institut de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Économique) at the [[University of Paris|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 {{nowrap|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,<ref>cf. Barry Sandywell's article "Forget Baudrillard", in ''Theory, Culture and Society'' (1995, issue 12)</ref> being published often in the French- and {{nowrap|English-speaking}} popular press. He nonetheless continued supporting the Institut de Recherche sur l'Innovation Sociale at the [[Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique]] and was ''[[Satrap]]'' at the [[Pataphysics|Collège de 'Pataphysique]]. Baudrillard taught at the [[European Graduate School]] in [[Saas-Fee]], Switzerland,<ref>[http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/biography/ Jean Baudrillard] Faculty page at [[European Graduate School]]</ref> 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]] domain) from its inception in 2004 until his death.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies |title=Baudrillard Studies |publisher=Ubishops.ca |access-date=17 August 2013 |archive-date=17 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190317233505/https://www2.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1999–2000, his photographs were exhibited at the [[Maison européenne de la photographie]] in Paris.<ref name="LYvonnet"/>{{rp|319}} In 2004, Baudrillard attended the major conference on his work, "Baudrillard and the Arts", at the [[Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe]] in [[Karlsruhe]], Germany.<ref name="LYvonnet"/>{{rp|317–328}}

=== Personal life ===
[[File:Grave of Jean BAUDRILLARD in Montparnasse Cemetery.jpg|thumb|Grave of Jean Baudrillard with flowers and vines planted and growing over it in Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France.]]
Baudrillard enjoyed baroque music; a favorite composer was [[Claudio Monteverdi]]. He also favored rock music such as ''[[The Velvet Underground & Nico]]''.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Reinventing the Real: A Conversation with Marine Dupuis Baudrillard ...by Tomasso Fagioli and Eleonora de Conciliis, Kritikos V.15, Summer 2018 |url=https://intertheory.org/marinebaudrillard.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805183729/https://intertheory.org/marinebaudrillard.htm |archive-date=2021-08-05 |access-date=18 November 2020 |website=intertheory.org}}</ref> Baudrillard did his writing using "his old [[typewriter]], never at the computer".<ref name=":5" /><ref name="disappear" /> He has stated that a computer is not "merely a handier and more complex kind of typewriter", and with a typewriter he has a "physical relation to writing".<ref>''Violence of the Virtual and Integral Reality'' by Jean Baudrillard, translated by Marilyn Lambert-Drache. Taken from: ''Light Onwords / Light Onwards'',
Living Literacies Text of the 14–16 November 2002 Conference – Part Three: E-Literacy</ref>

Baudrillard was married twice. He and his first wife Lucile Baudrillard had two children, Gilles and Anne. Not much is known about their relationship, or why they separated.<ref name=":5" /><ref name="Jean Baudrillard">{{Cite news |date=9 March 2007 |title=Jean Baudrillard |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jean-baudrillard-5547038.html |access-date=18 November 2020 |work=[[The Independent]] |language=en }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Samoyault |first=Tiphaine |author-link=Tiphaine Samoyault |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rvuDQAAQBAJ&q=Lucile+Baudrillard&pg=PT413 |title=Barthes: A Biography |date=13 January 2017 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-5095-0569-2 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> In 1970, while working as a professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre, 41-year-old Baudrillard met 25-year-old Marine Dupuis, who had just come back from a sailing trip around the world with her  then-boyfriend. In 1994, more than 20 years later, Jean and Marine got married. Marine went on to be a journalist and media artistic director.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marine Dupuis Baudrillard |url=https://www.delerepress.com/contributors/marinedupuisbaudrillard |access-date=2020-11-18 |website=Delere Press |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> 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.<ref name="Jean Baudrillard" /><ref name=":5" /> Marine Baudrillard curates ''Cool Memories'', an association of Jean Baudrillard's friends.

== Key concepts ==
{{essay-like|Key concepts|date=January 2023}}
Baudrillard's published work emerged as part of a generation of French thinkers including [[Gilles Deleuze]], [[Jean-François Lyotard]], [[Michel Foucault]], [[Jacques Derrida]], and [[Jacques Lacan]] who all shared an interest in [[semiotics]], and he is often seen as a part of the [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] philosophical school.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter Pericles |last=Trifonas |title=Barthes and the Empire of Signs |publisher=Icon Books |date=2001}}</ref>

James M. Russell in 2015<ref name="russell">{{cite book
|title=A Brief Guide to Philosophical Classics: From Plato to Winnie the Pooh
|author=James M. Russell
|chapter=Meaning and Interpretation: The Continental Tradition
}}</ref>{{rp|283}} stated that "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 [[structuralism|structuralist]] [[linguistics|linguist]] [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], Baudrillard argued that meaning (''value'') is created through [[Difference (philosophy)|''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-reference|self-referential]]: 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 system of other objects; for instance, one thing's prestige relates to another's mundanity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baudrillard |first1=Jean |title=The System of Objects |date=31 March 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-854-5}}</ref>

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-structuralists|Post-structuralism]] (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: {{Langx|la|seducere|lit=to lead away|label=none}}) 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]]s, a state of "[[hyperreality]]". 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.<ref>see here Baudrillard's final major publication in English, ''The Intelligence of Evil'', where he discussed the political fallout of what he calls "Integral Reality"</ref> Reality, in this sense, "dies out."<ref>{{cite book |last=Baudrillard |first=Jean |date=1985 |title=The Perfect Crime |location=London |publisher=[[Verso Books]]}}</ref>

Russell states that Baudrillard argues that "in our present 'global' society, technological communication has created an excessive proliferation of meaning. Because of this, meaning's self-referentiality has prompted, not a 'global village,' but a world where meaning has been obliterated"<ref name="russell"/>{{rp|283}}
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 liberal nor [[Marxist]] utopias are any longer believed in. We live, he argued, not in a "[[Global village (term)|global village]]", 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''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Breindel |first1=Jesse Glenn |title=Fatal and Banal Reality: Comparative Thoughts on Simulation and Concreteness |journal=The Undecidable Unconscious: A Journal of Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis |date=2019 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=29–45 |id={{Project MUSE|751101}} |doi=10.1353/ujd.2019.0001 |s2cid=216774594 |quote=I am not interested in the rules of the game of the symbolic. By 'symbolic' I do not mean the [[Lacanianism|Lacanian]] [[The Symbolic|symbolic]] but the universe of mental simulation. . . . For me the symbolic order is the register of desire, where ideology is fatal. The Lacanian sign is a chain of representations, but I am interested in another kind of sign, which is elliptical, as in poetry, where the sign is fatal }}</ref> acts such as, for example, terrorism. In Baudrillard's work the symbolic realm (which he develops a perspective on through the [[anthropology|anthropological]] 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 [[The Satanic Verses controversy|Rushdie Fatwa]]<ref>see here ''The Transparency of Evil'', Verso (1993)</ref> or, indeed, the [[September 11 terrorist attack]]s against the United States and its military and economic establishment.

=== {{anchor|The object value system}} Value criticism ===
[[File:Jean Baudrillard, Pour une critique de l'economie maitrier.jpg|left|thumb| 190px|Book cover, ''[[Éditions Gallimard]]'']]
{{further|Value criticism|Value-form}}
In his early books, such as ''[[The System of Objects]]'', ''For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign'', and ''{{ill|The Consumer Society|fr|La Société de consommation (ouvrage)}}'', 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]] (and [[Situationism]]), but in these books he differed from [[Karl Marx]] 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]]". 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 [[Roland Barthes]], "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.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|63}}

He wrote that there are four ways of an object obtaining value. The four value-making processes are:<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Baudrillard |first=Jean |date=1983 |title=For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign |location=London |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |isbn=9781788734844}}</ref>

# The [[Use value|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]]'').{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} But the focus on the difference between sign value (which relates to commodity exchange) and symbolic value (which relates to [[Marcel Mauss|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'' ===
{{Main|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 [[Ferdinand de Saussure|Saussurean]] [[semiotics]] 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 [[Roland Barthes]]'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".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kvas |first=Kornelije |title=The Boundaries of Realism in World Literature |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-7936-0910-6 |location=Lanham, Boulder, New York, London |pages=13}}</ref>

Simulation, Baudrillard claims, is the current stage of the simulacrum: all is composed of references with no referents, a [[hyperreality]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/simulacra-and-simulations-i-the-precession-of-simulacra/ |title=Simulacra and Simulations: I. The Precession of Simulacra |last=Baudrillard |first=Jean |website=[[European Graduate School]] |translator-first=S. F. |translator-last=Glaser |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729034203/http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/simulacra-and-simulations-i-the-precession-of-simulacra |archive-date=29 July 2010}}</ref> 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 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goff |first=Graham C. |date=2024-05-03 |title=Ascetic protestantism as fatal strategy: religious-economic conflict and the implosion of cultural value |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253866.2024.2313106 |journal=Consumption Markets & Culture |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=284–294 |doi=10.1080/10253866.2024.2313106 |issn=1025-3866|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== The end of history and meaning ===
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, one of Baudrillard's most common themes was [[historicity (philosophy)|historicity]], or, more specifically, how present-day societies use the notions of progress and modernity in their political choices. He argued, much like the political theorist [[Francis Fukuyama]], that history had ended or "vanished" with the spread of [[globalization]]; but, unlike Fukuyama, Baudrillard averred that this end should not be understood as the culmination of history's progress,{{blockquote|The aim of this world order [...] is, in a sense, the [[end of history]], not on the basis of a democratic fulfillment, as Fukuyama has it, but on the basis of preventive terror, of a counter-terror that puts an end to any possible [[Event (philosophy)|events]]. 
| Baudrillard, ''The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact'' . New York: Berg Publishing, 2005, Translated by Chris Turner<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20220305234431/https://baudrillardstudies.ubishops.ca/virtuality-and-events-the-hell-of-power/ Retrieved 14 March 2022. "Virtuality and Events: The Hell of Power" {{ISSN|1705-6411}}. Jean Baudrillard. Translated by Chris Turner. From ''The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact''.</ref>}} 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 [[Left–right political spectrum|Right and Left]]. Giving further evidence of his opposition toward [[Marxism|Marxist]] visions of global communism and liberal visions of [[Civil society#Global|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:

{{blockquote|The end of history is, alas, also the end of the dustbins of history. There are no longer any dustbins for disposing of old ideologies, old regimes, old values. Where are we going to throw Marxism, which actually invented the dustbins of history? (Yet there is some justice here since the very people who invented them have fallen in.) Conclusion: if there are no more dustbins of history, this is because History itself has become a dustbin. It has become its own dustbin, just as the planet itself is becoming its own dustbin.<ref name="IOTE">{{cite book |first=Jean |last=Baudrillard |title=The Illusion of the End |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |location=Palo Alto, California |date=1994 |isbn=978-0804725019}}</ref>{{rp|263}}}}

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 [[Fashionable Nonsense|attracted the ire of]] the physicist [[Alan Sokal]], Baudrillard wrote that the speed society moved at had destabilized the linearity of history: "we have the [[particle accelerator]] that has smashed the referential orbit of things once and for all."<ref name="IOTE"/>{{rp|2}}

Russell stated that this "approach to history demonstrates Baudrillard's affinities with the [[postmodern philosophy]] of [[Jean-François Lyotard]]",<ref name="russell"/> who argued that in the late 20th century there was no longer any room for "[[metanarrative]]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 (philosophy)|universality]] was still a notion used in world politics as an excuse for actions. Universal values which, according to him, no one any longer believed were universal 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 to hide the present's harsh realities (or, as he would have put it, unrealities). "In [[the Enlightenment]], [[universalization]] was viewed as unlimited growth and forward progress. Today, by contrast, universalization is expressed as a forward ''escape''."<ref>Baudrillard, Jean. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100527152945/http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/the-violence-of-the-global/ The Violence of the Global]," translated by F. Debrix. ''[[European Graduate School]]''. Archived from the [http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/the-violence-of-the-global/ original] on 27 May 2010.</ref> This involves the notion of "[[escape velocity]]" as outlined in ''The Illusion of the End'', 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 "[[self-referential]]" sphere of discourse.

== 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.<ref name="Baudrillard-3-in-This Time We Knew">{{cite book |last1=Baudrillard |first1=Jean |title=This Time We Knew |last2=Petterson |first2=James |date=1996 |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |pages=79–89 |chapter=No Pity for Sarajevo; The West's Serbianization; When the West Stands in for the Dead |jstor=j.ctt9qfngn.7}}</ref>

Baudrillard heavily criticized [[Susan Sontag]] for directing a production of ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'' in war-torn Sarajevo during the siege.{{sfn|Poole|2007a}}{{sfn|Poole|2007b}}{{sfn|Poole|2007c}}{{sfn|Antonio|2007}}{{efn|Baudrillard (trans. Chris Turner): {{blockquote|even Susan Sontag [...] came to stage ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'' in Sarajevo. [...] the worst part [...] [is] the condescending attitude and the misconception regarding where strength and weakness lie. ''They'' are the strong ones. It is ''we'' who are weak, going over there searching for somethin g to compensate for our weakness and loss of reality. <br/> [...] In her opinion pieces, [[Susan Sontag]] confesses that the Bosnians do not really believe in the distress all around them [...] find the whole situation unreal, senseless, unintelligible. It is [...] an almost hyperreal hell [partly due to] media and humanitarian harassment [...] But Susan Sontag, who is from New York, must know better than they do what reality is because she has chosen them to embody it. [...] And Susan Sontag comes to convince them [...] of the 'reality' of their suffering, by culturalizing it, of course, by theatricalizing it so that it can serve as a point of reference in the theatre of Western values, one of which is solidarity. <br/> Yet Susan Sontag herself is not the issue. She is merely fashionably emblematic of what has now become a widespread situation, in which harmless, powerless intellectuals trade their woes with the wretched [...] Not so long ago, we saw [[Pierre Bourdieu|Bourdieu]] and the [[Abbe Pierre]] offering themselves up in televisual sacrifice, trading off between them the pathos-laden language and the sociological [[metalanguage]] of misery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baudrillard |title=Screened Out |publisher=[[Verso]] |year=2002 |isbn=1-85984-385-9 |edition=translated |translator-last=Turner |translator-first=Chris |chapter=No Pity for Sarajevo}}</ref>}}}}{{efn|Baudrillard (trans. Patrice Riemens):{{blockquote|[...]Susan Sontag [...] came to have "[[Waiting for Godot]]" played in Sarajevo [...][...] the worse [''[[sic]]''] [...] is about the condescending manner in making out what is strength & [''[[sic]]''] what is weakness. They are strong. It is us who are weak and who go there to make good for our loss of strength and sense of reality. [...] <br/> Susan Sontag herself confesses in her diaries that the Bosnians do not really believe in the suffering which surrounds them [...] finding the whole situation unreal, senseless, and unexplainable. It is [...] hell of [...] a hyperreal kind, made even more hyperreal by the harassment of the media and the humanitarian agencies [...] But then Susan Sontag, hailing herself from New York, must know better than them what reality is, since she has chosen them to incarnate it [...] Susan Sontag comes to convince them of the "reality" of their suffering, by making something cultural and something theatrical out of it, so that it can be useful as a referent within the theatre of western values, including "solidarity". But Susan Sontag herself is not the issue. She is merely a societal instance of [...] the general situation whereby toothless intellectuals swap their distress with the misery of the poor [...] Thus, not so long ago, one could witness [[Pierre Bourdieu|Bourdieu]] and [[Abbe Pierre]] offering themselves as televisual slaughtering lambs trading with each other pathetic language and sociological garble about poverty.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baudrillard |first=Jean |date=8 January 1994 |others=Translated to English by Patrice Riemens |title=No Reprieve For Sarajevo |url=https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/14354/5130 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210313032146/https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/14354/5130 |archive-date=13 March 2021 |website=[[University of Victoria]]}}</ref>}}}}

===On the Persian Gulf War===
Baudrillard's provocative 1991 book, ''[[The Gulf War Did Not Take Place]]'',<ref name=":2">Baudrillard, Jean. 2004 [1991]. ''[[The Gulf War Did Not Take Place]]''.</ref> raised his public profile as an academic and political commentator. He argued that the first [[Gulf War]] was the inverse of the [[Clausewitz]]ian formula: not "the continuation of politics by other means", but "the continuation of the absence of politics by other means." Accordingly, [[Saddam Hussein]] was not fighting the [[Coalition of the Gulf War|Coalition]], but using the lives of his soldiers as a form of sacrifice to preserve his power.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|72}} The Coalition fighting the [[Iraqi military]] was merely dropping 10,000 tonnes of bombs daily, as if proving to themselves that there was an enemy to fight.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|61}} 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]]). His power was not weakened, evinced by his easy suppression of the 1991 [[1991 uprisings in Iraq|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]]'' 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.

<!-- This makes no sense as it stands: Much of the repute that Baudrillard found as a result of the book was based on his critique that the Gulf War was not ineffectual, as Baudrillard portrayed it: People died, the political map was altered, and Saddam Hussein's regime was harmed.-->Some critics, like [[Christopher Norris (critic)|Christopher Norris]]<ref name="philpapers.org">{{cite book | url=https://philpapers.org/rec/NORUTP | title=Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals, and the Gulf War | year=1992 | publisher=[[Lawrence & Wishart]]|author=[[Christopher Norris (critic)|Christopher Norris]] |isbn= 0-87023-817-5}}</ref> accused Baudrillard of instant [[Historical revisionism (negationism)|revisionism]]; a denial of the physical action of the conflict (which was related to his denial of reality in general<ref name="philpapers.org"/>). Consequently, Baudrillard was accused of lazy amoralism, cynical scepticism, and [[George Berkeley|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:<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|71–2}}

{{blockquote|Saddam liquidates the communists, Moscow flirts even more with him; he gases the Kurds, it is not held against him; he eliminates the religious cadres, the whole of Islam makes peace with him. […] Even […] the 100,000 dead will only have been the final decoy that Saddam will have sacrificed, the blood money paid in forfeit according to a calculated equivalence [...] to preserve his power. What is worse is that these dead still serve as an alibi for those who do not want to have been excited for nothing: at least these dead will prove this war was indeed a war and not shameful and pointless.|author=|title=|source=}}

==={{anchor|Terrorism comments}}On the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001===
In his essay, "The Spirit of Terrorism", Baudrillard characterises the terrorist attacks of [[September 11 attacks|11 September 2001]] on the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in New York City as the "absolute event".<ref name=":01">Baudrillard, Jean. [2001] 2010. "[http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/the-spirit-of-terrorism/ The Spirit of Terrorism]," translated by R. Bloul. [[European Graduate School]]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100825013330/http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/the-spirit-of-terrorism|date=25 August 2010}}.</ref> Baudrillard contrasts the "absolute event" of 11 September 2001 with "global events", such as the [[death of Diana, Princess of Wales]] and [[FIFA World Cup|World Cup]]. The essay culminates in Baudrillard regarding the U.S.-led [[Gulf War]] 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 {{nowrap|civilization-based}} warfare, he described the absolute event and its consequences as follows:

{{blockquote|This is not a [[Clash of Civilizations|clash of civilisations or religions]], and it reaches far beyond Islam and America, on which efforts are being made to focus the conflict to create the delusion of a visible confrontation and a solution based upon force. There is indeed a fundamental antagonism here, but one that points past the spectre of America (which is perhaps the epicentre, but in no sense the sole embodiment, of globalisation) and the spectre of Islam (which is not the embodiment of terrorism either) to triumphant globalisation battling against itself.<ref name=":01" />}}

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.

Baudrillard's stance on the 11 September 2001 attacks was criticised on two counts. [[Richard Wolin]] (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 (journal)|Economy and Society]]'', 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]], 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.{{vague|date=November 2022}}<ref name="bruno">{{cite journal |last1=Latour |first1=Bruno |year=2004 |title=Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern |url=http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/89-CRITICAL-INQUIRY-GB.pdf |journal=[[Critical Inquiry]] |volume=30 |issue=2 |page=228 |doi=10.1086/421123 |jstor=10.1086/421123 |access-date=12 October 2017 |s2cid=159523434}}</ref>

===Debate with Jacques Derrida===
19 February 2003, with the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] impending, {{ill|René Major|fr|René Major}} moderated a debate entitled ''"Pourquoi La Guerre Aujourd'hui?"'' between Baudrillard and [[Jacques Derrida#Debate with Jean Baudrillard|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.<ref name="Guerre"/> "Where Baudrillard situates 9/11 as the primary motivating force" behind the Iraq War, whereas "Derrida argues that the Iraq War was planned long before 9/11, and that 9/11 plays a secondary role".<ref name="Leitch">{{cite web | url=https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/vincent_b._leitch_reviews_baudrillard_and_derrida | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210328160748/https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/vincent_b._leitch_reviews_baudrillard_and_derrida | archive-date=28 March 2021 | title=Critical Inquiry |website=[[University of Oklahoma]] |author=Vincent Leitch}}</ref>

===''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 (social and political)|power]] itself.<ref name=":3" /> 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]]s. For example, he cited French television channel [[TF1]] executive [[Patrick Le Lay]] [[TF1#Criticism|who stated]] that his business' job was "to help [[Coca-Cola]] sell its products."<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|37}} 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."<ref name=":3">Baudrillard, Jean. [2007] 2010. ''The Agony of Power'', translated by A. Hodges, [[Semiotext(e) Intervention Series]] 6. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e). {{ISBN|9781584350927}}.</ref>{{Rp|38–9}} 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."<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|47}}

The latter pieces included further analysis of the 11 September 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 piece's 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."<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|67}} This criticism of the West carried notes of Baudrillard's simulacrum, the above cynicism of business, and contrast between Muslim and Western societies:<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|67–8}}<blockquote>We [the West] throw 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.</blockquote>

==Reception==
[[Jean-François Lyotard]]'s 1974 ''[[Libidinal Economy|Économie Libidinale]]'' criticised Baudrillard's work.

Lotringer notes that [[Gilles Deleuze]], "otherwise known for his generosity", "made it known around Paris" that he saw Baudrillard as "the shame of the profession", in response to Baudrillard's study on Foucault's works.<ref name="FF">''Forget Foucault'' SEMIOTEXT(E) FOREIGN AGENTS SERIES {{ISBN|978-1-58435-041-5}}, published in 1977 as ''Oublier Foucault''. Translated by Nicole Dufresne</ref>{{rp|20}}<ref name="on">{{cite journal |last1=Lotringer |first1=Sylvère |author-link=Sylvère Lotringer |date=July 2009 |title=On Jean Baudrillard |journal=International Journal of Baudrillard Studies |volume=6 |issue=2 |quote=Deleuze let it be known around town that he considered Baudrillard the shame of the profession. Felix condemned his fatalism and irresponsible politics, not realizing that Jean was political, if in very different ways}}</ref>

Sontag, responding to [[#On the Bosnian War|Baudrillard's comments]] on her reactions to the Bosnian war, described him as "ignorant and cynical" and "a political idiot".<ref>{{harvp|Antonio|2007}}; {{harvp|Poole|2007a}}; {{harvp|Poole|2007b}}; {{harvp|Poole|2007c}}</ref>

James M. Russell in 2015 wrote that "The most severe" of Baudrillard's "critics accuse him of being a purveyor of a form of reality-denying irrationalism".<ref name="russell"/>{{rp|285–286}}
One of Baudrillard's editors, critical theory professor [[Mark Poster]], remarked:{{sfn|Poster|2002|p=8}}

{{blockquote|Baudrillard's writing up to the mid-1980s is open to several criticisms. He fails to define key terms, such as the code; his writing style is hyperbolic and declarative, often lacking sustained, systematic analysis when it is appropriate; he totalizes his insights, refusing to qualify or delimit his claims. He writes about particular experiences, television images, as if nothing else in society mattered, extrapolating a bleak view of the world from that limited base. He ignores contradictory evidence such as the many benefits afforded by the new media&nbsp;}}

But Poster still argued for his contemporary relevance; he also attempted to refute the most extreme of Baudrillard's critics:{{sfn|Poster|2002|p=7}}

{{blockquote|Baudrillard is not disputing the trivial issue that reason remains operative in some actions, that if I want to arrive at the next block, for example, I can assume a [[Newtonianism|Newtonian universe]] (common sense), plan a course of action (to walk straight for ''X''&nbsp;meters), carry out the action, and finally fulfill my goal by arriving at the point in question. What is in doubt is that this sort of thinking enables a historically informed grasp of the present in general. According to Baudrillard, it does not. The concurrent spread of the hyperreal through the media and the collapse of liberal and Marxist politics as the master narratives, deprives the rational subject of its privileged access to truth. In an important sense individuals are no longer citizens, eager to maximise their civil rights, nor [[proletarian]]s, anticipating the onset of communism. They are rather consumers, and hence the prey of objects as defined by the code.}}

Christopher Norris's ''Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the Gulf War'',<ref name="philpapers.org" /> to Russell, "seeks to reject his media theory and position on "the real" out of hand".<ref name="russell"/>{{rp|285}}

Frankfurt school critical theorist [[Douglas Kellner]]'s ''Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond''<ref name=":0">[[Douglas Kellner|Kellner, Douglas]]''. Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond''. {{ISBN|0-8047-1757-5}}.</ref> 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.{{vague|date=December 2022}}<ref>Zurbrugg, Nicholas. ''Jean Baudrillard: Art and Artefact''.</ref>

Kellner stated that "it is difficult to decide whether Baudrillard is best read as science fiction and pataphysics, or as philosophy, social theory, and cultural metaphysics, and whether his post-1970s work should be read under the sign of truth or fiction." To Kellner, Baudrillard during and after the 1970s "falls prey to a [[technological determinism]] and semiological [[idealism]] which posits an autonomous technology".{{sfn|Kellner|2019}}

In 1991, writing for ''[[Science Fiction Studies]]'', [[Vivian Sobchack]] alleged that "The man [Baudrillard] is really dangerous" for lacking "moral gaze", while [[J. G. Ballard]] (whose novel Baudrillard had written on) commented in his ''Response to an Invitation to Respond'' excluded Baudrillard from his criticism towards the journal and its endeavour at large.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=In Response To Jean Baudrillard (Hayles, Porush, Landon, Sobchack, Ballard) |url=https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/55/forum55.htm |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=www.depauw.edu
|author=N. Katherine Hayles
|author-link=N. Katherine Hayles
|author2=David Porush
|author3=Brooks Landon
|author4=Vivian Sobchack
|author-link4=Vivian Sobchack
|author5=J. G. Ballard
|author-link5=J. G. Ballard
|volume=18}}</ref>

[[Sara Ahmed]] in 1996 remarked that Baudrillard's {{lang|fr|De la séduction}} was culpable of "celebrating [...] is precisely women's status as signs and commodities circulated by and for male spectators and consumers".<ref name=":4">{{cite journal |last=Ahmed |first=Sara |author-link=Sara Ahmed |year=1996 |title=Beyond Humanism and Postmodernism: Theorizing a Feminist Practice |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1996.tb00665.x |journal=[[Hypatia (journal)|Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy]] |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=71–93 |doi=10.1111/j.1527-2001.1996.tb00665.x |s2cid=143850077 |via=[[Wiley Online Library]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Kellner described {{lang|fr|De la séduction}} as an "affront to feminism".<ref name=":0" />

Art critic [[Adrian Searle]] in 1998 described Baudrillard's photography as "wistful, elegiac and oddly haunting", like "[[movie still]]s of unregarded moments".{{sfn|Poole|2007a}}{{sfn|Poole|2007b}}{{sfn|Poole|2007c}}

One of the most commonly cited critiques of Baudrillard was written in 2013 from academic writer Andrew Robinson of [https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk Ceasefire magazine], who declares Baudrillard's work as both [[Sexism|sexist]]<ref name=":4" /> and [[Racism|racist]],<ref>{{Cite news |title=Jean Baudrillard's Duality |url=https://baudrillardstudies.ubishops.ca/jean-baudrillards-duality/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241221014432/https://baudrillardstudies.ubishops.ca/jean-baudrillards-duality/ |archive-date=21 December 2024 |access-date=2025-02-25 |work=International Journal of Baudrillard Studies |language=en-CA |url-status=live }}</ref> while also containing [[Ableism|ableist]] undertones, stating: "Many of his [Baudrillard's] formulations are inadvertently sexist and racist. There are also times when Baudrillard comes across as ableist in his critiques of the therapeutic." Additionally, Robison critiques the philosophy of Baudrillard as exaggeratory. Although Robinson provides a critique of Baudrillard's theory, he also describes the value of said theory. Specifically, Robinson states, "Baudrillard’s theory also helps to explain why his appropriation by leftists has been strategically unsuccessful." Robinson also describes the value of the simulacra in relation to media critique, especially in the US media.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McLaverty-Robinson |first=Andy |date=2013-02-06 |title=Jean Baudrillard and Activism: A critique |url=https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-baudrillard-14/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=Ceasefire Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Tone and attitude ===
[[Mark Fisher]] pointed out that Baudrillard "is condemned, sometimes lionised, as the melancholic observer of a departed reality", asserting that Baudrillard "was certainly melancholic".<ref name="kpunk">{{cite web |url=http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/009126.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106102748/http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/009126.html |archive-date=6 January 2022 |author-link=Mark Fisher |first=Mark |last=Fisher |title=My Death Is Everywhere, My Death Dreams |date=9 March 2007 |quote=Baudrillard was never quite laborious or detached enough to qualify as a Continentalist, nor even as a philosopher (he was based, improbably, in a Sociology department). Always an outsider, projected out of the peasantry into the elite academic class, he ensured his marginalization with the marvellously provocative Forget Foucault, which wittily targeted Deleuze and Guattari's micropolitics as much as it insouciantly announced the redundancy of Fo[u]cault's vast edifice.}}</ref> 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",{{sfn|Poster|2002}} a view [[Felix Guattari]] echoed.<ref name="on"/> [[Richard G. Smith (geographer)|Richard G. Smith]], David B. Clarke and Marcus A. Doel instead consider Baudrillard "an extreme optimist".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Richard G. Smith; David B. Clarke; Marcus A. Doel |title=Baudrillard Redux: Antidotes to Integral Reality |volume=7 |issue=3 |date=1 November 2011 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/cultural-politics/article/7/3/325/34220/Baudrillard-Redux-Antidotes-to-Integral-Reality |doi=10.2752/175174311X13069348235088 |access-date=1 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202082542/https://read.dukeupress.edu/cultural-politics/article/7/3/325/34220/Baudrillard-Redux-Antidotes-to-Integral-Reality |archive-date=2 December 2022 |journal=[[Cultural Politics]] |pages=325–338 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In an exchange between critical theorist [[McKenzie Wark]] and EGS professor [[Geert Lovink]], Wark remarked of Baudrillard that "Everything he wrote was marked by a radical sadness and yet invariably expressed in the happiest of forms."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://baudrillardstudies.ubishops.ca/radical-sadness-theory-after-baudrillard/ |title=Radical Sadness: Theory After Baudrillard|work=International Journal of Baudrillard Studies }}{{cite web |url=http://www.networkcultures.org/geert/irony-and-sadness-after-jean-baudrillard-2/ |title=Geert &#124; Irony and Sadness–After Jean Baudrillard}}{{cite web |url=http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0703/msg00022.html |title=Radical sadness—exchange between ken wark and geert Lovink}}</ref> Baudrillard himself stated "we have to fight against charges of unreality, lack of responsibility, nihilism, and despair".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=67 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513042009/http://ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=67 |archive-date=13 May 2016 |title=CTheory.net}}</ref> Chris Turner's English translation of Baudrillard's ''Cool Memories: 1980–1985'' writes, "I accuse myself of[...] being profoundly carnal and melancholy [...] AMEN {{sic}}".<ref name="cool">
{{Citation
| last = Baudrillard
| first = Jean
| author-link = 
| title = Cool Memories: 1980–1985, Translated by Chris Turner
| place = Paris
| publisher = [[Verso Books]]
| series = 
| volume = 
| orig-date = 1987
| year = 1990
| edition = 
| chapter = 
| chapter-url = 
| page = 
| pages = 
| language = en
| url = https://archive.org/details/Baudrillard/Baudrillard.1987.Cool-Memories-One <!--
| archive-url = https://archive.org/details/Baudrillard/Baudrillard.1987.Cool-Memories-One
| archive-date = 17 July 2021
-->
| doi = 
| id = 
| isbn = 9783882212488
| mr = 
| zbl = 
| jfm = }}</ref>{{rp|38}}

[[David Macey]] saw "extraordinary arrogance" in Baudrillard's take on Foucault.<ref name="FF"/>{{rp|22}} Sontag found Baudrillard 'condescending'.{{sfn|Antonio|2007}}

Russell wrote that "Baudrillard's writing, and his uncompromising – even arrogant – stance, have led to fierce criticism which in contemporary social scholarship can only be compared to the [[Jacques Lacan#Legacy and criticism|criticism received by Jacques Lacan]]."<ref name="russell"/>{{rp|285}}

== Influence and legacy ==
Native American [[Anishinaabe]] writer [[Gerald Vizenor]] made extensive use of Baudrillard's concepts of simulation in his critical work.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Raheja |first1=Michelle |title=Postindian Conversations (review) |journal=The American Indian Quarterly |date=Spring 2001 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=324–325 |doi=10.1353/aiq.2001.0027 |s2cid=161353983}}</ref>{{clarify|date=June 2021}}

American artist [[Joey Skaggs]] has been noted for creating media hoaxes that exemplify Baudrillard's concept of [[hyperreality]]. By orchestrating fictitious events—such as the ''Cathouse for Dogs'' and ''Portofess''—which were reported as real by major news outlets, Skaggs constructs simulations that supplant actual truths, thereby exposing the media's role in manufacturing reality.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fictiocracy: Media and Politics in the Age of Storytelling « INC Longform |url=https://networkcultures.org/longform/2018/02/22/fictiocracy-media-and-politics-in-the-age-of-storytelling/ |access-date=2025-04-14 |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== In popular culture ===
{{see also-text|{{annotated link|Jonas Baes}}|{{annotated link|Apollo 440#Jean Baudrillard}}|{{annotated link|Karaoke Plays#7" vinyl No. 1 (Numbered white vinyl with free poster)}}|{{annotated link|J Church (band)#Partial discography}}}}
[[The Wachowskis]] said that Baudrillard influenced ''[[The Matrix]]'' (1999), and Neo hides money and disks containing information in ''Simulacra and Simulation''. [[Adam Gopnik]] wondered whether Baudrillard, who had not embraced the movie, was "thinking of suing for a screen credit,"<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Gopnik |first=Adam \author-link=Adam Gopnik |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/05/19/030519crat_atlarge |title=The Unreal Thing |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=19 May 2003 }}</ref> but Baudrillard himself disclaimed any connection to ''The Matrix'', calling it at best a misreading of his ideas.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Matrix Decoded: ''Le Nouvel Observateur'' Interview With Jean Baudrillard |journal=International Journal of Baudrillard Studies |url=https://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol1_2/genosko.htm |issn=1705-6411 |location=Quebec, Canada |publisher=[[Bishop's University]], Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology |volume=1 |issue=2 |date= July 2004 |editor1-first=Gary |editor1-last=Genosko |editor2-first=Adam |editor2-last=Bryx |access-date=10 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325171140/http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol1_2/genosko.htm |archive-date=25 March 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.empyree.org/divers/Matrix-Baudrillard_english.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113012028/http://www.empyree.org/divers/Matrix-Baudrillard_english.html |archive-date=13 January 2008 |title=Le Nouvel Observateur with Baudrillard |access-date=23 August 2009 |work=[[Le Nouvel Observateur]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/24/opinion/editorial-observer-a-french-philosopher-talks-back-to-hollywood-and-the-matrix.html?pagewanted=all |work=[[The New York Times]] |first=Brent |last=Staples |title=Editorial Observer; A French Philosopher Talks Back to Hollywood and 'The Matrix' |date=24 May 2002}}</ref>

Some reviewers have noted that [[Charlie Kaufman]]'s film ''[[Synecdoche, New York]]'' seems inspired by Baudrillard's ''Simulacra and Simulation''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/movies/24syne.html |first=Manohla |last=Dargis |title="Dreamer, Live in the Here and Now" (review of ''Synecdoche'') |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 October 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Strong |first=Benjamin |url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2008/11/synecdoche_new.php |title=Synecdoche, New York: Welcome to the Simulacra – New York – Music – Sound of the City |work=Village Voice Blogs |date=13 November 2008|access-date= 17 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514122612/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2008/11/synecdoche_new.php |archive-date=14 May 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hoby |first=Hermione |title=The ultimate postmodern novel is a film |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/may/13/synechdoche-postmodern-novel-film |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=13 May 2009}}</ref>

The album ''[[Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?]]'' by rock band [[Deerhunter]] was influenced by Baudrillard's essay of the same name.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://jenesaispop.com/2019/01/22/352888/deerhunter-why-hasnt-everything-already-disappeared/ |title=Deerhunter / Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? |date=22 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.mehaceruido.com/2019/01/resena-deerhunter-why-hasnt-everything-already-disappeared/ |title=Reseña: Deerhunter /// Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? |date=30 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/deerhunter-why_hasnt_everything_already_disappeared |title=Deerhunter Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? |website=Exclaim!}}</ref>

=== In technology ===
[[Cody Wilson]], the developer of the first [[3D-printed firearm|3D-printed gun]], credits the work of Baudrillard as his theoretical inspiration, and claims him as his "master."<ref name="WiredDES">{{cite magazine|title=Cody Wilson Wants to Destroy Your World|url=https://www.wired.com/2015/03/cody-wilson-wants-to-destroy-your-world/|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|date=March 11, 2015|access-date=December 27, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708020154/https://www.wired.com/2015/03/cody-wilson-wants-to-destroy-your-world/|archive-date=July 8, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name = "SPLC">{{cite web |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/cody-rutledge-wilson |title=Cody Rutledge Wilson |publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |access-date=December 27, 2024 }}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
=== Books ===
* 1968. ''[[The System of Objects]]'' (English: 1996)
* 1970. ''{{ill|The Consumer Society|fr|La Société de consommation (ouvrage)|lt=The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures}}'' (English: 1998)
* 1972. ''For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign'' (English: 1981)
* 1973. ''[[The Mirror of Production]]'' (English: 1975)
* 1976. ''[[Symbolic Exchange and Death]]'' (English: 1993)
* 1977. ''Forget Foucault'' (English: 1987)
* 1978. ''[[In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities]]'' (English: 1983)
* 1979. ''Seduction'' (English: 1990)
* 1981. ''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]'' (English: 1983)
* 1983. ''Fatal Strategies'' (English: 1990)
* 1983. ''Simulations'' (first published in English)
* 1985. ''The Divine Left: A Chronicle of the Years 1977–1984'' (English: 1985)
* 1986. ''America'' (English: 1988)
* 1987. ''Cool Memories 1980–1985'' (English: 1989)
* 1987. ''The Ecstasy of Communication'' (English: 1988)
* 1990. ''The Transparency of Evil'' (English: 1993)
* 1990. ''Cool Memories II 1987–1990'' (English: 1996)
* 1991. ''[[The Gulf War Did Not Take Place]]'' (English: 1995)
* 1992. ''The Illusion of the End'' (English: 1994)
* 1995. ''The Perfect Crime'' (English: 1996)
* 1995. ''Fragments: Cool Memories III 1990–1995'' (English: 1997)
* 1997. ''Paroxysm: Interviews with Philippe Petit'' (English: 1998)
* 1997. ''Screened Out'' (English: 2002)
* 1999. ''Impossible Exchange'' (English: 2001)
* 2000. ''Passwords'' (English: 2003)
* 2000. ''[[The Singular Objects of Architecture]]'' (English: 2002)
* 2000. ''The Vital Illusion'' (first published in English)
* 2000. ''Cool Memories IV 1995–2000'' (English: 2003)
* 2000. ''The Conspiracy of Art'' (English: 2005)
* 2001. ''Fragments (Interviews with François L'Yvonnet)'' (English: 2003)
* 2001. ''Telemorphosis'' (English: 2011)
* 2002. ''The Spirit of Terrorism and Requiem for the Twin Towers'' (English: 2002)
* 2004. ''The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact'' (English: 2005)
* 2005. ''Cool Memories V 2000–2004'' (English: 2006)
* 2005. ''Exiles from Dialogue'' (with Enrique Valiente Noailles) (English: 2007)
* 2006. ''Utopia Deferred: Writings for Utopie (1967–1978)'' (first published in English)
* 2007. ''Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?'' (English: 2009)
* 2008. ''Radical Alterity'' (with Marc Guillaume) (first published in English)
* 2008. ''Carnival and Cannibal, or the Play of Global Antagonisms'' (English: 2010)
* 2010. ''The Agony of Power'' (first published in English)

===Articles and essays===
* {{cite book |date=1987 |title=The Evil Demon of Images |pages=83–98 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/jean-baudrillard-reader/evil-demon-of-images/163F9FB64371EBC8A13B275F514B8851 |url-access=registration |publisher=Power Institute of Fine Arts |isbn=0909952078}}
* {{Cite web |publisher=[[European Graduate School]] |title=Jean Baudrillard - Professor of Philosophy of Culture and Media Criticism - Articles |url=http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/ |access-date=2023-02-20 |website=www.egs.edu
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527112658/http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/
|archive-date=27 May 2010
}}
* 1996. "No Pity for Sarajevo; The West's Serbianization; When the West Stands In for the Dead." Pp.&nbsp;79–89 in ''This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia''. NYU Press. {{JSTOR|j.ctt9qfngn.7}}.
* 2001. "The Spirit of Terrorism." ''[[Telos (journal)|Telos]]'' 121(Fall):134–42.
* 2005. "Divine Europe." ''Telos'' 131(Summer):188–90.
* 2006. "The Pyres of Autumn." ''[[New Left Review]]'' 2(37).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130602215546/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+violence+of+images,+violence+against+the+image.-a0182036057 The violence of images, violence against the image.]
* ''Radical Thought'' ([[CTheory]]) 
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20160513042009/http://ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=67 CTheory.net]
** [https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/14663/5533 Radical Thought]

=== 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.&nbsp;70–83.
* [[Richard G. Smith (geographer)|Smith, Richard G.]], David B. Clarke, eds. 2015. ''Jean Baudrillard: From Hyperreality to Disappearance: Uncollected Interviews''. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7486-9429-7}}.
* Smith, Richard G., David B. Clarke, eds. 2017. ''Jean Baudrillard: The Disappearance of Culture: Uncollected Interviews''. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. {{ISBN|978-1-4744-1778-5}}.

=== Audio CDs ===
* 1997. ''Die Illusion des Endes – Das Ende der Illusion'' [58 minutes + booklet], Jean Baudrillard & [[Boris Groys]]. Cologne: supposé. {{ISBN|3-932513-01-0}}
* 2006. ''Die Macht der Verführung'', [55 minutes]. Cologne: supposé. {{ISBN|978-3-932513-67-1}}.

== See also ==
* {{annotated link|Hyper-real Religion}} <!--Related to Baudrillard's diagnosis of 'hyperreality-->
* {{annotated link|Reza Negarestani}} <!--Through Nick Land, developed Baudrillard's 'theory-fiction'-->
* {{annotated link|The Real}}<!--This may be related to "the real" mentioned in reception-->
* {{annotated link|Code (semiotics)}}<!--This may be what Poster depicts Baudrillard as lacking systematic definition of.-->
*{{annotated link|Freud's seduction theory}}
*{{annotated link|Friedrich Nietzsche's views on women}}
* {{annotated link|Symbolic violence}}
*{{annotated link|Psychoanalytic sociology}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist|30em}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite web |last=Antonio |first=Robert J. |date=2007 |title=The Passing of Jean Baudrillard |url=https://fastcapitalism.uta.edu/4_1/antonio.html |access-date=23 February 2023 |website=[[University of Texas at Arlington]]}}
* {{cite web |last=Attias |first=Bernardo |title=S(t)imulacrum(b) |date=26 May 2011 |url=http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/baud/ |access-date=16 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415075337/http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/baud/ |archive-date=15 April 2021 |quote=A radical defense of structuralism against poststructuralism, although worded as a radical defense of "fatality" (i.e. destiny) against "chance" and "randomness." Rather than accepting the view of meaning/order as something imposed on disorder by the discourse of rationality, Baudrillard defends precisely the reverse; disorder is imposed upon order by the discourse of innocence (if everything is left up to chance, we escape human responsibility for social situations).}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Aylesworth |first=Gary |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/#6 |title=Postmodernism |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |date=Spring 2015 |editor-link=Edward N. Zalta |editor-first=E. N. |editor-last=Zalta |access-date=1 January 2020 |quote=The French, for example, work with concepts developed during the structuralist revolution in Paris in the 1950s and early 1960s, including structuralist readings of Marx and Freud. For this reason they are often called “poststructuralists.” They also cite the events of May 1968 as a watershed moment for modern thought and its institutions, especially the universities.}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Coulter |first1=Gerry |date=December 2008 |title=Baudrillard and Hölderlin and the Poetic Resolution of the World |url=http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Coulter.pdf |journal=NEBULA: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Scholarship |volume=5 |number=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307165045/http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Coulter.pdf |archive-date=7 March 2022 |issn=1449-7751}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Gane |editor-first=Mike |title=Baudrillard Live: Selected Interviews |date=4 March 1993 |location=London and New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |quote=I really don't think of myself as a philosopher, my impulse comes from a radical temperament which has more in common with poetry than philosophy. |isbn=978-0415070386}} 
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Kellner |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Kellner |date=Winter 2019 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/baudrillard/ |title=Jean Baudrillard |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |editor-link=Edward N. Zalta |editor-first=E. N. |editor-last=Zalta}}
* {{cite web |last=Poole |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Poole |date=7 March 2007a |title=Transfini |url=http://stevenpoole.net/articles/transfini/ |archive-date=14 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614150941/http://stevenpoole.net/articles/transfini/ |quote=Baudrillard had once said, kindly: “I admire Derrida, but it’s not my thing.” He sympathized ironically with Americans who felt invaded by Derridean acolytes spreading the gospel of [[deconstruction]]: “That was the gift of the French. They gave Americans a language they did not need. It was like the Statue of Liberty. Nobody needs [[French theory]].”}}
* {{cite news |last=Poole |first=Steven |date=7 March 2007b |url=https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,2028464,00.html |title=Jean Baudrillard. Philosopher and sociologist who blurred the boundaries between reality and simulation |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London, England}}
* {{cite news |last=Poole |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Poole |title=Jean Baudrillard: French philosopher and sociologist who explored the changing nature of reality in the media age |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/mar/08/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329003220/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/mar/08/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries |archive-date=29 March 2022 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=8 March 2007c |publication-date=8 March 2007 |quote=Baudrillard had once said, kindly: “I admire Derrida, but it’s not my thing.” He sympathized ironically with Americans who felt invaded by Derridean acolytes spreading the gospel of [[deconstruction]]: “That was the gift of the French. They gave Americans a language they did not need. It was like the [[Statue of Liberty]]. Nobody needs [[French theory]].”}}
* {{cite book |last=Poster |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Poster |date=2002 |chapter=Introduction |title=Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings |edition=2nd |editor-first=M. |editor-last=Poster |editor-link=Mark Poster |location=Stanford |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-0804742733}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Redhead |first=Steve |title=All Things are Curves: Notes on the intersecting lives of Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio |journal=Fusion Journal |number=2 |date=2013 |url=https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/8877378/51228postpub.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428014435/https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/8877378/51228postpub.pdf |archive-date=28 April 2021 |access-date=26 February 2022 |via=[[Charles Sturt University]] Research Portal}}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Richard G. |title=The Baudrillard Dictionary |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |date=2010}}
* {{cite web |last1=Wolters |first1=Eugene |url=http://www.critical-theory.com/nobody-needs-french-theory-baudrillard-slams-peers-in-2005-interview/ |title="Nobody Needs French Theory," Baudrillard Slams Peers in 2005 Interview |website=Critical Theory |date=18 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220001243/http://www.critical-theory.com/nobody-needs-french-theory-baudrillard-slams-peers-in-2005-interview/ |archive-date=20 December 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=16 February 2023}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Zurbrugg |first1=Nicholas |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03085149300000030 |title=Baudrillard, modernism, and postmodernism |journal=[[Economy and Society]] |date=24 May 2006 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=482–500 |doi=10.1080/03085149300000030 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101133819/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03085149300000030 |archive-date=1 November 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=16 February 2023|url-access=subscription }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091220090028/http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/biography/ Jean Baudrillard Biography]. Archived from the [http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/biography/ original] on 20 December 2009. Faculty page at [[European Graduate School]] (biography, bibliography, photos and videos).
*{{cite SEP |url-id=baudrillard |title=Jean Baudrillard |last=Kellner |first=Douglas}}
*{{cite book |title=Fatal Strategies |last=Baudrillard |first=Jean |series=Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents |date=11 April 2008 |publisher=Semiotext(e) |isbn=9781584350613 |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/fatal-strategies-new-edition|edition=New }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130521140751/https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf Jean Baudrillard (1981; translated 1994 by Sheila Glaser), Simulacra and Simulation], archived from [https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf the original] on 21 May 2013.
*{{cite web|url=http://www.robertexto.com/archivo9/baudrillard.htm |title=The world of Jean Baudrillard |publisher=Robertexto.com |access-date=17 August 2013}}
*''[https://baudrillardstudies.ubishops.ca/ International Journal of Baudrillard Studies].'' Retrieved 9 March 2022

{{Jean Baudrillard}}
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[[Category:Jean Baudrillard| ]]
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