Jean Baudrillard Dies at 77

PARIS-Eminent philosopher, author and social theorist Jean Baudrillard, died at the age of 77 on Tuesday, at home, following a lengthy period of illness. He leaves behind a world changed and touched, and possibly predicted, by his thoughts and his writings.

The French thinker was largely concerned with the state of the world with regard to the decline of objective values in favor of consumerist excess and media-created spectacle. Believing that modern life did not allow for the 'real' existence of something if it was not observed and documented, the noted sociologist challenged conventional notions of his reality by positing a state of 'hyperreality' wherein that which is real only is so due to its own proof of its own existence.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Baudrillard famously drew ire from critics upon the publication of a book "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place", wherein he argued that media perception created more of a war, a victory and a defeat than actually emerged in measurable statistics or notable political upheaval. He caused further controversy with the misunderstanding of his discussion of 9/11 as a key example of a self-inflicted event required to fill a void in consciousness, as if declining American morals created a vacuum that hyperreal nature might abhor.

Although at first glance a philosopher and a pop culture product might not have much to do with each other, Baudrillard's work was brought to the attention of the common moviegoer in the portentous year of 1999 with the release of the film "The Matrix", which took Plato's allegory of the cave into the digital realm. Sharp-eyed viewers will of course note his famous "Simulacra and Simulation" on Keanu Reeves' desk early on, but the filmmakers used the work not only as a prop for the set but a prop to rest the film's philosophy on; Baudrillard's questioning and search for what is real is echoed, if not always properly contextualized, in the protagonist's journey to recognize his simulated world as a media-presented construct. Baudrillard was reportedly not particularly impressed with the film's grasp of his concepts.

Baudrillard's academic career began with studying German at the Sorbonne; he later taught the language in high school before moving on to a professorship and later a directorship at the University of Paris, where he was noted for his work in both sociology and socioeconomic research.

Sources

"French philosopher Jean Baudrillard dies," International Herald Tribune, March 6, 2007.