| This dissertation considers the genealogy of the notion of simulacrum, as it evolved from the designation of a single copy of an original invested of all reality and truth in Plato, to that of a copy of a copy, whose original is either irretrievable or inexistent in postmodern theory. A genealogical method is adopted, following Foucault's work seeking to uncover the mixed origins of concepts and discourses as well as their relation to power.;The dissertation is divided in three parts, each covering a key epoch of transformation for the notion of simulacrum itself and the disciplinary or technical discourses framing it.;I first examine the origins of the simulacrum and the problems of ethics and politics it generated. Plato's political imperative to regulate not simply language but the real through an ordering that cannot tolerate infinity is contrasted with the Sophists' approach to truths as relative to discourses, demanding a work in language towards a mutual agreement and dynamical understanding as basis for a polity. A reading of Rouveret's contributions to the history of painting provides a case study of attempts at the regulation of art by disciplinary discourses. Eighteenth century aestheticism defines a new relation to the simulacrum. The quasi-religious adoration of the simulacrum and its use as a sensual and sensible educative tool determine a new relation of philosophy with reality. Comparing and contrasting Hume and the Sophists, we see that Hume displays both a moral pessimism due to the facility for the human mind to accept errors, and a realism conditioning the possibility of a moral consensus. I then move on to a description of contemporary interpretative debates about the third Critique. I then examine how those readings determine relations between Kantian and Humian philosophies in order to understand the early history of the modern conception of the simulacrum.;I conclude by looking at the use of the paradoxical element in Deleuze's philosophy as a means to redefine the relations between philosophy and literature, and conclude by examining the ethics of the virtual proposed in Logique du sens. |
