Critical Research On Baudrillard's Theory Of "Simulation"

As one of the original academic thoughts of Baudrillard,simulation theory fully embodies the characteristics of capitalism in the simulation period.It not only inherits his early research on the system of objects and analysis of the relationship among people,technology,and symbolization grounded on the consumer society and symbolic value but also initiates the conversation of simulacra in terms of simulation,implosion,and hyperreality of post-modern society.From the perspective of Marxism,this paper attempts to explore the origin and development course of simulation theory through content analysis of his works together with the consideration of the time he lived in to comprehend the cognitive relation between simulation and traditional philosophy and further analyze the value of simulation in the contemporary society.The introduction offers a panorama of the background of the whole paper.Firstly,it puts forward the study and significance of simulation,which is the critique of the new productive form of capitalism by Baudrillard with the emergence of the simulation era and also calls scholars for an in-depth analysis of simulation theory to reflect the status quo of the theory in China.Secondly,it presents the research on the relationship between Baudrillard,Marx,and post-modern theory and finally gives a brief introduction of the research approach and shortcomings.Chapter two analyzes the realistic origin and general presentation of the simulation theory.It starts with the introduction of a realistic environment of Baudrillard's lifetime,the third stage of the production conditions of capitalism.In the duration,fixed machine production was changed into the symbolic production characterized by the informationflow,which was permeated into daily life,rendering him pay more attention to changes in real life and shift to the philosophical thinking of symbols.As far as the realistic presentation of simulation theory,with the development of the world economy and the advancement of science and technology,signs are duplicated infinitely,and mass media are steering people's consciousness imperceptibly from every aspect of life.Thus,the besiege of simulation is formed.Meanwhile,the media,as the most crucial simulation machine,produces a large number of images and symbols,constituting an independent field of hyperreality and reconstruct the needs and desires of the subject.Chapter three explains the authenticity in traditional epistemology and the approaches provided by the simulation theory.Simulation is the third stage of the development of a simulacrum world.The process of reaching the simulation reflects the changes in the law of value of the capitalistic era,and the regular changes of it are conducive to the comprehension of the logic of simulation development.At the same time,it explains problems and dilemmas of authenticity in traditional epistemology and demonstrates that simulation tries to dispel the reality to control subject cognition to construct the logic of the hyperreal world.Chapter four,with the basis of the understanding of the essence of simulation,explains the social role of simulation.It points out that the development of simulation synchronously reflects the characteristics of the change of social forms in different periods and reminds people to pay attention to the adjustment of social psychology and the life meaning of human beings while attaching importance to the change of social production activities in terms of production orientation,social relations created and production models.Chapter five reviews the simulation theory Baudrillard from theperspective of Marxism.The critique of signs of Baudrillard endeavors to disintegrate and reconstruct Marxism,utterly overthrow production theory,negate Marx 's concept of labor,and separate use value and exchange value.Moreover,it transfers Marx 's production process into consumption and turns production patterns into meaning ones to cause everything to be simulated.In the end,it finally reduces to the utopia of symbolic exchange due to the over-exaggeration of Baudrillard about the role of symbol reproduction,dispelling of subjectivity,and pessimistic predictions of social conditions.