Multinational capitalism, which separates produced goods from the plants, minerals and other original materials and the process used to create them.Exchange value, in which the value of goods is based on money rather than usefulness.

Contemporary media including television, film, print and the Internet, which are responsible for blurring the line between goods that are needed and goods for which a need is created by commercial images.īaudrillard theorizes the lack of distinctions between reality and simulacra originates in several phenomenon: Third order, associated with the postmodern age, where the simulacrum precedes the original and the distinction between reality and representation break down.The items' ability to imitate reality threaten to replace the original version. Second order, associated with the industrial revolution, where distinctions between image and reality breaks down due to the proliferation of mass-produced copies.First order, associated with the pre-modern period, where the image is clearly an artificial placemarker for the real item.Simulacra and Simulation identifies three types of simulacra and identifies each with a historical period:

The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media that create the perceived reality Baudrillard believed that society has become so reliant on simulacra that it has lost contact with the real world on which the simulacra are based. Baudrillard claims that modern society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that the human experience is of a simulation of reality rather than reality itself. Simulacra and Simulation is most known for its discussion of images, signs, and how they relate to the present day. The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth-it is the truth which conceals that there is none. Simulacra and Simulation ( Simulacres et Simulation in French) is a philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard that discusses the interaction between reality, symbols and society.

Simulacra and simulation in french