baudrillard simulacra and simulation audiobook

Baudrillard simulacra and simulation audiobook series#

He expands his observation with cases from theology and ethnology. What can we make of a person who truly believes themselves to be ill or has been convinced of their illness, or the person whose symptoms vanish after being given a placebo? Is there a difference?

In order to illustrate the difficulty of determining the real from the simulated, he offers the example of illness – a “truly” ill person may simply lie in bed not exhibiting any symptoms, while a pretender may purposefully exhibit the symptoms by which doctors would diagnose or treat the illness. He calls this the “hyperreal” – a representation so realistic that it cannot be distinguished as a representation, but is treated as reality. In other words, the map became the empire.īaudrillard argues that today such simulations have escalated to a point where they now compose our understanding of reality. The simulacrum is true.” He then proceeds to describe a great empire which, as its territory expanded, devised a map which was so precise in scale and detail that it eventually becomes confused for the actual geography it was only meant to represent.

Baudrillard simulacra and simulation audiobook series#

This is a series of notes and reflections I compiled while reading the book.īaudrillard opens with a quote supposedly from the Ecclesiastes: “The simulacrum is never what hides the truth – it is truth that hides the fact that there is none. Baudrillard introduces the concept of the “hyperreal,” illustrating it through references to a wide range of cultural products, from advertising and architecture, to cinema to universities. It is primarily concerned with the role that images play in contemporary society and the way that reality is mediated by these images. Simulacra and Simulation is a book written by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard and published in 1981. It examines his theory of the “hyperreal” and how it manifests in society’s relationship to art, movies, mass media, advertising, education, architecture, technology, and language. This is a series of notes and reflections I compiled while reading Jean Baudrillard’s 1981 book Simulacra and Simulation.