Information is self-explanation. cognition - generation of simulacra

NEW MYTHOLOGEMES OF MODERN CONSCIOUSNESS: SIMULACRA
(ON THE PROBLEM OF DESTRUCTION OF BINARISM)

The article deals with the phenomenon of simulations and simulacra. It is shown (using specific examples) that these mythologems of human consciousness permeate the most diverse areas of his activity: art, science, politics, economics, etc. Comprehending simulations and simulacra in the aspect of binarism, the author highlights the main method of creating simulacra: deformation and destruction of binary oppositions.

Simulacrum(from Latin simulo, "pretend, pretend") - "copy" that does not have an original in reality. In other words, a semiotic sign that does not have a signified object in reality.
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On the eve of the twentieth century. F. Nietzsche said: “Do not hide your head in the sand eternal values". It seems that these words very accurately correspond to the ideological and aesthetic attitudes of the culture and art of the 20th century, and especially to avant-garde and postmodernism, oriented, to paraphrase F. Nietzsche, to the creation of “transient falsities”, i.e. imaginaries.

It is no coincidence that many prominent thinkers and scientists assessed the state of culture of the twentieth century. (starting from the beginning of the century) as a crisis (O. Spengler, P. Sorokin), the agony and dying of art (V. Weidle), the apocalypse of artistic culture (V. Bychkov), in milder terms - metamorphoses and collisions of culture. In psychoanalytic comprehension, modern culture receives the status of neurotic and psychotic
(V. Rudnev).

Trying to comprehend the crisis of culture of the 20th century, and hence the crisis of the system of human life values, one inevitably encounters the problem of binarism. Firstly, with the fact of criticism of binary logic and the rejection of the "ontology" of binarism by postmodern philosophy (and binarity, we recall, is a universal property of human consciousness and thinking).

Secondly, in the sphere of culture and art, one encounters the process of deformation of binary oppositions, which, as is known, were the constructive basis of anthropocentric artistic culture.

And thirdly, as a consequence, with the destruction of the artistic image and its meaning by removing its general antinomy "image - prototype (Prototype)", which is largely due, and it is important to emphasize, by the refusal of artists from the main aesthetic idea - the principle of mimises (imitation ).

And if earlier (already in ancient culture) the artistic image in a recognizable form expressed material and sensory reality (metaphor - "mirror"), and in religious art, embodying spiritual reality in a symbolic form, pointed to the Prototype (icon - "window to the heavenly world"), then, starting with creativity avant-garde artists, and then in the practice of postmodernism, in art, new antimimetic meanings begin to form. With their help, the so-called “New Artistic Reality” (E. B. Vitel) is created, a kind of “kingdom of crooked mirrors”, which claims to be a spiritual reality, or rather paraspiritual, since it (the New Reality) is the result of the fantasies of the artist’s consciousness , which means it gravitates towards the phenomenon of simulacra.

After all, what is a simulacrum?
IN modern meaning the word "simulacrum" (from Latin simulo - pretend, pretend) is defined as an exact copy, the original of which never existed (according to F. Jameson); or as a representation of something that does not really exist (according to J. Baudrillard); a sign that denies both the original and the copy (according to J. Deleuze); and also as "a model, an ersatz of reality, pure corporeality, a plausible likeness, an empty form" (Mankovskaya, 2000, p. 57).

A number of other words and concepts are associated with the semantic meaning of the word "simulacrum" (as well as the prefixes "pseudo-" and "quasi-"):

phantasm semblance fake pretend dummy image
appearance bluff untrue pretend fake mask
fake illusion false forgery makeup mask
deception mirage imaginary fiction camouflage
chimera

The main thing in this variety of interpretations of the simulacrum (and there is no single definition of it), as well as in such a long series of words synonymous with it, is that the word "simulacrum", being a key concept in the philosophy of postmodernism, "registered" new mythologemes of modern consciousness, which have found an "ecological niche" in a wide variety of areas of human activity.

In the field of art, the first heralds of simulacra can be called “The Hole Blowed ...” - “zaum” by Alexei Kruchenykh, “Poem” by Basilisk Gnedov with the word “shish” on a blank sheet. Let's also call Duchamp's "Toilet" ("Fountain"), bought by him in a plumbing store on the way to the exhibition and exhibited there as a work of art (with the artist's personal autograph). Let's point to "Black Square" by A. Malevich, and to the play by J. Cage "4.33", in which there is a complete absence of music.

These works, like many others similar to them, born in the first half of the twentieth century. as a result of avant-garde experiments in art and over art, a kind of “donut holes” in terms of semantic content, testified to the destruction of the meaning-forming foundations of classical (anthropocentric) culture, associated with a change in its formative principles. Such radical experiments, we note - highly characteristic of early avant-gardism, were carried out by their authors in the name of creating a new, fundamentally different art.

However, what is more interesting here is that such works, and especially the last two ("Black Square" and "4. 33"), provoke many researchers (and the authors themselves too) endow them(apparently, according to the principle "nature does not tolerate emptiness" or due to the inertia of artistic perception, focused on extracting meanings from within the work itself) deep, philosophical and symbolic meanings, and quite a "classic" character.

What makes these artifacts the most polyinterpretative works of the 20th century?
By the way, how simulacra are created was simply and clearly explained to the children by G. H. Andersen in The Tale of the Naked King.

The common thing that unites these works is the replacement of artistic images expressing the living world of nature and man (images of the “classical” type) with a new type of imagery, a system of conventional signs and symbols; the destruction of the antinomy of artistic meaning - the law of art (in the words of V. N. Kholopova) and the binary structure of the artistic image; and along with them - the abolition of catharsis, "affective contradiction" as the law of aesthetic reaction, justified in works on psychology by L. S. Vygotsky.

Note that the absence of such (catharsis), as a rule, is compensated by the effects of provocation and shocking (at the level of meaning, form, as well as ways of presenting the idea), clouding the mind rather than enlightening it (although the opposite cannot be ruled out).

Consider the play "4.33" by J. Cage in a binary way. This musical composition, it would seem, has everything: the title, the score (although these are blank sheets with the inscription takend - “silent”), and various options composition of instruments for its execution. However, in addition to external paraphernalia (“frames”), “4.33” lacks the main thing - music, its intonational eidos and internal artistic meaning. By the will of the composer, he is replaced by a philosophical concept in the spirit of Zen Buddhism:
“Everything that surrounds us is music” (consonant with another aphorism and J. Cage's author's credo: “The music of the spheres can also be heard in the hiss of fried eggs”). It is no coincidence that J. Cage is considered
herald of conceptual art.

Thus, in the play "4.33" by J. Cage, one can observe the deformation of the opposition "text and context", "external and internal meaning", as a result of which the external, contextual meaning comes to the fore. If we consider the work in a broad cultural and historical context, then this meaning can be designated as a protest against all musical traditions and a representation of the ideology of new American experimental music.

We emphasize that the representation itself is carried out in the form of an action, a performance, giving the play "4.33" a symbolic character and making it a "sign" (which, by the way, is consistent with various art criticism interpretations of the inner meaning of the play), and in potency - a simulacrum, i.e. "signified" without "signified".

Let us pay attention to the fact that, contrary to the “profound” philosophical concept laid down by the author in this work, the practice of concert performance of a play (for example, in a television broadcast of a concert is perceived by both the public and the performers as a show, fun, theatrical performance.

And the theatricalization of life, as you know, is feature postmodern culture, its symptom, and, importantly, has a simulation nature. Today, not only TV programs such as "Hour of Judgment", "Dom-2" (from past programs - "Windows" with D. Nagiyev), but also all events of political, social and even religious life are subject to theatricalization. It is easy to see this by watching any news broadcasts.

IN contemporary culture the phenomenon of simulacra and simulation, penetrating all spheres (forms) of social consciousness, includes the widest class of objects and phenomena: words, images, things, events, etc. Let us name the simplest examples of simulacra.

These are functional and household: stuffed animal, dummy, camouflage, mannequin, mask, bait on a hook for fishermen imitating a fish, decoy duck for hunters, etc.

In the field of military art for simulation purposes, inflatable tanks and inflatable rocket launchers are used to divert the enemy to decoys.

In the field of economics financial pyramids, counterfeit money, financial bubbles (inflating and deflating) act as simulacra.

According to the principle of aesthetic simulation (fashion, style), beauty industry, offering the widest range of services: Botox injections, silicone implants, false eyelashes and nails, hair extensions (one's own, others'), etc. The industry that uses flavors that are identical to natural, taste imitations, "fresheners" of rotten meat does not lag behind. , as well as producing decaffeinated coffee, alcohol-free beer, synthetic red caviar, beef from soy "meat" and other "as if" natural products created using the achievements of chemical science.

It is curious to note that some of the named simulacra are literally created by the method of inflating and for the purpose of banal deception, while generating various psychological effects (self-hypnosis, self-deception, stereotyping of behavior and experiences, etc.).

There are words and terms-simulacra, according to the figurative expression of S. N. Bulgakov, "word-mannequins". Thus, from the position of psycholinguistics, the word "homeless" with its "inanimate" character and formally abbreviated sound neutralizes the animated meaning of the original Russian words "tramp", "homeless", appealing to compassion and mercy.

With the help of a language game and euphemisms, “word werewolves” are also created, when the negative semantics of words (phrases) are replaced with neutral and even positive ones in order to mask the true meaning of the phenomenon. As examples, we will name such well-known political "phraseological units":
military operations in Vietnam - “Appeasement Program”, concentration camp - “strategic village”, murder of a person - “physical elimination”, bombing of Yugoslavia (1999) - “humanitarian intervention”, response actions of the Russian Federation in Georgia “peace enforcement operation” .
In the given examples, the destruction of the binary opposition "war - peace" is clearly observed through the interchangeability of its members, which leads to the "removal", the abolition of this opposition.

The opposite also happens, for example, when theatrical events (a system of simulacra) in Novorossia are presented as war, opposition and parties to the conflict.

A favorable habitat for mass forms of simulacra is the sphere mass culture . Let us point out only one of the mass simulacra - the "American smile". On the example of this mask - one of the forms of mass culture and the form of mass simulacrum, it is convenient to show the deformation of the dichotomy "form and content" by merging and annihilating its components with the subsequent implosion of meaning: the form is there - the content is absent. Fortunately, the Russian person smiles (at least
re, for now), as director V. Solovyov rightly noted, only if he feels good and joyful in his soul.

Let's focus on one of the most famous videos in Russia from the Image is Nothing! series, which advertises the Sprite drink. In this undeniably talented video clip created by director T. Bekmambetov, the following text is noteworthy: “Actually, she is not a real blonde, she does not have blue eyes - these are lenses. She doesn't have real breasts - it's silicone. And he is not interested in girls at all - he has a friend. And their clothes are uncomfortable... The real truth here is that they are very thirsty. Well, very much.
And also the fact that this is an advertisement for Sprite. Image is nothing, thirst is everything! Don't let yourself dry up!"

The text of this advertisement, as well as its video sequence, in terms of perception could be defined as a “self-exposure” of simulacra (and this is partly true), if one more simulacrum mask was not found under the torn off mask (the slogan “image is nothing”) (target informational virus along with the installation of homosexuality) - "thirst is everything."

It should be said that modern advertising, as well as numerous art practices and art compositions, can also be considered as a form of presentation of simulacra. Among other forms of presentation, we can name such phenomena of modern culture as glamor, brand, top models, pop stars, phonograms in the performing practice of pop stars (well, not yet in academic music).

By the way, in the widespread practice of using phonograms during concerts, it is puzzling that she (this practice) is perceived by a modern person not as a deceit and a fake (a trick and a forgery), but in a positive axiological sense: as a result of technical perfection, and hence artistic quality.

Factories for the production of simulacra are also the art of postmodernism with its art practices from art makers (outdated - "artists"), political technologies and means mass media. Working in close collaboration and attracting the achievements of technical and humanitarian sciences, these spheres produce simulacra already on an industrial scale, and, mainly, with the aim of manipulating the mass consciousness. So, with their help, ideological pseudo-values ​​are skillfully introduced into the minds of people, intersecting in their curvature of meaning with the principle of color differentiation of pants from the film “Kin-dza-dza” directed by G. Danelia, and pseudo-charisms and simulacrum slogans are also created.

Among many historical facts and examples, we point to the image of the “peace-loving Fuhrer” and his appeal to the German people, recorded in the documentary film “Triumph of the Will” by L. Riefenstahl. Here is a quote from the speech of the leader of the German people: “We want our people to become disciplined. And we must comply with this requirement.
We want our people to become peaceful and at the same time brave. AND we must cultivate peace in ourselves»
(our italics. - E. G.). As history has shown, these slogans-calls in fact turned out to be fiction.

From other examples of this kind, the slogans of the French Revolution “Freedom! Equality! Brotherhood!”, which turned out to be a hoax, the slogans of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 "Bread for the people!", "Land for the peasants!" "Factories for workers".

Simulacra are created by social engineering, psychology, psychotherapy, and image technologies. In this creative process, the method of deformation of binary oppositions, for example, such as "image - image" (in Russian, "mask"), "to be - to seem", is in great demand.

So, according to the method of replacing the image, not only the external appearance of a person is modified, but also the existential vacuum is displaced (according to the “method of French spirits”), in which a person finds himself, who, according to Heidegger, is in a situation of “God’s non-existence” .

It is no coincidence for modern man Numerous methods, psycho-trainings, NLP courses, etc., turn out to be attractive, promising to teach him “how to become a superhuman”, discover the divine in himself, rule over people and even manipulate himself. In the program settings of some courses, between the lines, or even openly and openly, there is a bewitching invitation to the mind (we quote R. Bandler): “There is a whole world with which you can play, and it is waiting for you” (from one advertisement).

It is quite obvious that the demand for such proposals indicates serious changes in the value and worldview orientations of a person. Although it is quite clear that the use of psychotechnics and methods in certain areas and with certain goals is appropriate and justified. For example, in the system of military training of fighters (in particular, with A. A. Kadochnikov), in the field of sports, medicine, and pedagogy.

(The use of psycho-methods in a broad sense is appropriate and justified in all spheres of life. The whole question is for what purposes they are used and for the ideological and value affiliation of those who use them. That is, the main thing is the answer to the question "why" it is used - for the realization of private selfish interests in line with the person-to-person vampire (market capitalist paradigm) or for the implementation of interests community development in line with man-to-man brother / son / comrade (social-family communist paradigm) approx. od May 9).

Comprehending the myth-construction of an illusory reality (simulation) and willingly staying in it (as well as the consumption of simulacra) in the spiritual and existential dimension, these phenomena can be interpreted as a kind of “escape from reality” (unacceptable, unfavorable, uncomfortable, traumatic, etc.). ), a reality whose essential companions are existential anxiety and fear (Leontiev, 2003) .

Highlighting the phenomenon of “escape from reality” from the point of view of psychology, it can be defined as one of the forms of escapism (it seems that “escape from freedom” described by E. Fromm can be included here), which acts as a kind of psychological defense mechanism for a person, one of the methods of crowding out existential anxiety (in order to harmonize your being in the world). In connection with the foregoing, it will be interesting to note that D. A. Leontiev considers mass and pop culture as a tool for displacing existential anxiety (2003). But it is precisely these spheres, as shown above, that are a favorable environment for simulacra to live.

(But for some reason, Leontiev does not say who EXACTLY plunges the consciousness of the plebs into "existential anxieties", immediately placing the patients of a general capitalist psychiatric clinic on the cognitively suppressing "wheels" of mass pop cult. That is, he does not say that all this components of a single technology. note OD May 9)

However, it should be borne in mind that “escape from reality” into an illusory world inhabited by quasi-meanings and quasi-values ​​(and even quasi-experiences, for example, in virtual reality) can be fraught with a person’s loss not only of a sense of reality, but also of reality itself (as in neurosis and psychosis), as well as the deontologization of his personality and, as a result, the aggravation of existential anxiety, expressed in a feeling of inner emptiness, abandonment, God-forsakenness (in the Christian explanation). Such spiritual states turned out to be so characteristic of the culture of the twentieth century. and so significant in human life that they were not only diagnosed by art (already at the beginning of the 20th century) - this sensitive "barometer" of spiritual life (for example, in the actualization of the theme of non-existence: death, loneliness, meaninglessness, absurdity, etc.) , but also reflected by philosophy, giving rise to the end of the twentieth century. its sections such as "nigitology" (the doctrine of non-existence) and "nigitology of culture".

(Why not say here that the described phenomenon is typical only for the Western plebs transferred by capital into the regime of mental slavery, and the Soviet people and many who have not grown up to the consumer society of the natives of the third world - this did not affect. Rather, it touched, later with the convergence of elites and consumerist transition 70-80s. note od May 9)

Considering the phenomenon of simulacra from the perspective of binarism, let us pay attention to the fact that some of the examples of simulacra given in the article are generated as a result of the deformation of binary oppositions, but at the same time turn out to be, so to speak, an accidental result of this process (the play “4.33” by J. Cage, the simulation of a smile on American style). However, simulacra can also be created in a completely conscious way. In this case, the destruction of binary oppositions is autonomized as a goal and as an effective method of creating simulacra (simulation of peacefulness in political "phraseological units", image simulation)

Here is a list of value-semantic oppositions that are relevant for today and are subject to the process of deformation and destruction using various methods (forcing one of the poles of the opposition, their rupture, merging, substitution, displacement, interchangeability): earthly - sublime, transient (momentary) - eternal, profane - sacred, relative - absolute, permissiveness - freedom, sensual - spiritual, hedonism - asceticism, virtual - real, image - image, seem - to be, mass - individual, part - whole, etc.

A question arises for reflection: is there a trend towards the formation of “one-dimensional” and devoid of contradiction thinking in the course of the observed processes of destruction of binary oppositions?

And one more question related to the previous one: is it not symptomatic the appearance of one study (it was published quite recently), in which the image of the Savior is interpreted by the greatest leader-strategist, and the apostles Paul, Joachim and John are called top managers. And, which logically follows from such an interpretation, the "behavioral patterns" of Jesus Christ are recognized as extremely useful and relevant for any modern leader. It can be assumed that such original (speculative-applied) interpretations of the meaning of the gospel narrative are generated either by the “removal” of the dichotomy of modern thinking, or as a result of ignoring or misunderstanding of antinomies. Christian religion.

(At modern development humanitarian technologies, the activities of Jesus and the apostles, who dealt the first world-historical blow to the Judeo-racist matrix (paradigm), may well be considered in modern concepts of marketing and consciousness-tuning technologies. Top managers or priests of the Judeo-racist Idea (today - the priests of capitalism) drove the consciousness of the population into a matrix that was beneficial to themselves. Managers of Christian marketing - formed their Christian (today communist) worldview (for example, John Chrysostom). Between these ideologies-paradigms and their adherents there is more than two thousand years of war. Today, the scales have tipped in favor of market cannibals who code people into their filthy belief in the "naturalness of mutual eating." Here, in principle, is the whole understanding of the "antinomies" of the Christian religion - the old forerunner of communism, which already postulates a clearer division of the most important value-semantic phenomena and concepts relevant to today:
- huckster-communist, capitalist-communist, rich-poor man, usurer of the people - father of the people, individualist-collectivist, cosmopolitan-internationalist, market-family, market zone - socialist fatherland, educator - brain-fuck, private property - public property, chrematistics - people's economy, racism-brotherhood, competition-cooperation, etc. approx. OD 9 MAY)

To the above, I would like to add that the hermeneutical problematics related to the issues of understanding and interpreting the meaning of texts, including literary ones, is super relevant in modern culture, in which, as in an airless space, torn antinomies float and in which, thanks to the confession of the principles of relativism and pluralism, the concepts of "top" and "bottom", "good" and "evil" are often denied.

(Hermeneutic problems are far-fetched problems, behind which usually lies the unwillingness of a layman to dot the "I" and give a holistic (systemic) picture of reality (who exactly and for what purposes "breaks antinomies"), confining himself to polit- correct description of particular phenomena or technologies Any attempt at a holistic systemic description of phenomena human life, ultimately rests on the moral CHOICE - choice point of view - a system of values, a system of ideals, an ideology (religion), which is affirmed in the practice of people's lives, and therefore, ultimately rests on the "PM of party spirit".

Without this choice - without a public distinction between "good and evil" and "what is God and Truth" (without any slipping into the gods in a vacuum) the claim for the most super-impartial, super-rationalistic, most exhaustive description of the phenomena of the spiritual, mental, moral, cultural and social life of a person turns into a fiction (such as an impartial medical study of the experiments of D. Mengele with the mention of Kant and Nietzsche), behind which is usually hidden a banal complicity with the powerful of this world or the eternal call of intellectuals - "Buy me!". (So ​​the question arises - is the example of Bolshevik agitation inserted here by chance?). approx. OD 9 MAY)

Summarizing all of the above, we can say that simulacra and simulations generated by (the behavioral industry of TNCs, note OD May 9) game of modern consciousness and being its new mythologemes, permeate all planes of human existence (spiritual, mental, bodily) and form " new world eidos” (A. Velikanov), the world of simulacra (imaginary and virtual), claiming ontological status.

The world, which, in the interpretation of O. Nikolaeva, “is, in fact, fiery hell (Matt. 18, 9) - a place where there is no God, where reality and meaning, phenomenon and essence, signifier and signified have diverged forever.”

An integral feature of simulacra, we emphasize this again, is the destruction of binary oppositions, developed by anthropocentric culture, observed during their creation. This has been shown with concrete examples.

In conclusion, let's try to extract a positive meaning from all that has been said. Firstly, the very fact of awareness of the widest distribution of simulacra in our lives (and according to Baudrillard, modernity has entered an era of total simulation of everything and everything) and, secondly, the understanding that simulacra are imaginary entities, phantasms of our consciousness, and they are not ontological, gives a person the opportunity to leave the world of simulacra (traps of consciousness) and, remembering his Prototype, return to the world of Reality and Truth.

(without awareness of the struggle of ideological Systems and ISMS - this is an illusory hope. note od May 9)

simulacra, from lat. simulare, French meaning - pseudo-thing, empty form) - a term of the philosophy of (post) structuralism, roughly denoting the shadow of a shadow, taking on too much in its zombie reincarnation; a paranoid copier, a clone of clones, developing completely unpredictably and dizzily material signified, became widespread after the formulation of the term). In postmodern aesthetics, S. takes the place of the classical "artistic image."

For understanding S., two quotes from the works of Gilles Deleuze are important: “In the dizzying abyss of S., any model is lost”; "WITH. is not a degrading copy, it contains a positive charge that denies both the original and the reproduction”, as well as J. Derrida’s synonymous series: “icons, fantasies, simulacra”. M. Foucault compares the prose of Pierre Klossovsky with S. (the essay "Prose of Acteon", 1964, - the ancient hero contemplated the ghost of a bathing naked goddess, which in no way mitigated the degree of his punishment), J. Baudrillard found a correspondence to the concept in Disneyland and Watergate - cultural and US political simulacra. Developing this idea, for us - retrospectively - VDNH and GULAG are simulacra.

In any case, the relationship between S. and mass culture is obvious: what is kitsch in mass culture is called S in postmodernity. Any connection with reality is lost, meaning is completely emasculated, art turns into design - just look at any exhibition of so-called contemporary artists. As a result, we get an absolutely empty world of simulacra, in other words, the world of advertising, in comparison with which Gidebohr's "society of the spectacle" looks like a real Klondike.

[ABOUT. Sidor-Gibelinda]

See: Spectacle, Postmodernism, Emptiness, Situationism, Schizoanalysis.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

SIMULACR

fr. simulacres, from simulation - simulation) is a term in the philosophy of postmodernism to designate a non-conceptual means of fixing experience. Genetically goes back to the term "S." ("simulacrum"), which Plato meant "copy of a copy". Introduced into the circulation of postmodernism by Bataille, interpreted by Klossowski, Kozhev, Baudrillard and others. In the context of a general rejection of the idea of ​​reference (see. Blank sign ) postmodernism radicalizes the interpretation of S.: postmodern philosophy sets a mental space where "the identity of the model and the similarity of the copy will be a delusion" (Deleuze). S. in this context is defined as "an exact copy, the original of which never existed" (Jamison). In this capacity, S. serves as a special means of communication based on the reconstruction in the course of communication of verbal partners of the purely connotative meanings of the statement. According to Klossowski, if "the concept and the conceptual language presuppose what Bataille calls "closed existences", then the "openness of existences or the achievement of the integrality of existences" realized in the processes of communication ... can only be developed as simulacra of concepts. "Constituting in opposition to the vector rigidly categorical philosophizing, Bataille's concept realizes itself in "S. concepts": "I went from the concepts that closed ... The language did not justify my hopes .., something else was expressed, not what I was experiencing, because what was experienced at a certain moment was ease ... The language recedes, for language is formed from sentences that speak on behalf of identities". Meanwhile, postmodernism is integrally based on the rejection of the latter: Virilio's "philosophy of singularities", Lyotard's "thinking of intensities", R. Bart's "variant codes" - all this is fundamentally alternative to the phenomenon of identity (see Differences philosophy). Any identity in the postmodern frame of reference is impossible, because the final identification is impossible, because concepts are in principle not correlated with reality. In this context, Bataille postulates "openness of existence" in contrast to "closed existence", which implies "conceptual language" and based on the identities it defines. The concept is characterized by a constant value, the carrier of knowledge about which can be an individual subject, - in contrast Contrary to this, the actualization of the meaning of S. can be carried out only in the procedures of communication: relatively speaking, if the concept is a scalar phenomenon, then S. is a vector phenomenon directed in the course of communication from the addresser to the addressee (addressees). This means that S. can acquire its meaning if and only if its individual associative and connotative aspects, implicitly embedded in it by the addresser, are actualized and co-operated together in the perception of the addressee. Strictly speaking, "conceptual language" defines the identity of existence with being, thereby deforming being as "escaping any existence." In this regard, "we are forced ... to reveal concepts beyond themselves" (Klossowski). The fundamental property of S. in this regard is its fundamental inconsistency and incompatibility with any reality. This becomes evident in Bataille's frame of reference of so-called "sovereign moments" (laughter, drunkenness, eros, sacrifice), in a dotted continuum of which "immeasurable extravagance, senseless, useless, aimless waste" ("discontinuity") becomes the "motive of rebellion" against organized in a concrete form ("arranged and exploited") existence - "in the name of being" as unidentifiable as such. These "sovereign moments" are the "S. of discontinuity", and therefore cannot be expressed in the "conceptual language" without a totally destructuring loss of meaning, because the experience of "sovereign moments" changes the subject who realizes himself in this experience, alienating his identity and releasing the most of it to true being (compare with the moments, "when the mind refuses its services" in Shestov). In this frame of reference, S. as an expression of a “sovereign moment” (“S. of discontinuity”) actually acts in Bataille as a quasi-S., a “simulacrum of S.,” which abolishes the possibility of the very thought of any kind of identity. Bataille's effort in the search for an adequate (or at least non-deforming language) for the transmission of "sovereign experience" was evaluated by Kozhev as " evil spirit the constant temptation of a discursive rejection of discourse, i.e. from discourse, which, of necessity, closes in on itself in order to keep itself in truth. " According to Klossowski's formulation, "where language yields to silence, the concept yields to simulacrum." In a situation where a person speaks and expresses himself in S., necessary condition communication is the reconstruction by the addressee of the addressee's quasi-semantic connotations. Thus, "the simulacrum is not entirely a pseudo-concept: the latter could still become a fulcrum, since it can be exposed as false. The simulacrum forms a sign of an instant state and can neither establish an exchange between minds, nor allow the transition of one thought to another" (Klossovsky). In the words of Klossowski, "in the simulacra of concepts ... the expressed thought invariably implies a special susceptibility of the interlocutor." Thus, communication carried out through S. is based not on the combination of semantically constant conceptual fields of communication participants, but on the coherence of connotative configurations of S.'s perception, i.e. on the cooperation of unstable and momentary semantic associations of communicative partners. If stable mutual understanding is possible on the basis of conceptual communication, then "a simulacrum is ... complicity, the motives of which not only cannot be defined, but also do not try to self-determine" (Klossovsky). According to Klossovsky,

At one point or another, "complicity is achieved by S.", but, arising as contact over fundamentally sovereign moments, "complicity" feeds on their very sovereignty, i.e. the fundamental impossibility to act as the basis of "complicity", due to which the latter does not pretend to stability and constancy, acting as momentarily transient: "aiming at complicity, the simulacrum awakens in the one who experiences it, a special movement, which will disappear." In this context, S. itself plays the role of a semantic focus around which the integration of associative series is carried out. (In this context, Deleuze's assessment of the commentary on Husserl's "Cartesian Reflections" proposed by G. Berge is similar, where Berge interprets the phenomenon of "point of view" as a kind of "center of individuation".) "Pronouncing S.", a person actually frees his associative fields, and possible connotative meanings of what was said, "getting rid of oneself as a subject addressing other subjects in order to leave only the content of experience in value" (Klossowski), open to any changes. This experience grasped by S. can be interpreted by another (who is in a relationship of "complicity" with me) not through my (expressive and suggestive) or his (hermeneutic) efforts, but only through the self-movement of associative fields and connotative meanings. According to Klossowski, "it is precisely by the trick of the simulacrum that consciousness without slander (that is, the vacancy of the 'I') sneaks into the consciousness of the other." Rid of all concepts as containing the intention to identify its meaning with reality, language abolishes "itself along with identities", while the subject, "voicing" experienced experience, "at the very moment when he pronounces it, gets rid of himself as subject addressing other subjects" (Klossowski). Meaning generation appears in this context as the self-organization of experience liberated from the subject (see "Death of the Subject") and expressed in S. experience, and the place of a stable (referentially guaranteed) sense in this case occupies a multitude of connotative meanings, formed on the basis of cooperation of momentary associations. Thus, S., as a form of fixation of non-fixed states, opens up an “event horizon”, on one side of which there is a deadening and rigid certainty of a meaning supposedly objective and immanent to the event, and on the other side, “blindness resulting from ... an implosion of meaning.” (See also Simulation.)

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Also, this term is actively used by such philosophers as Deleuze and Baudrillard. Previously (starting with the Latin translations of Plato) it simply meant image, picture, representation. For example, a photograph is a simulacrum of the reality that is displayed on it. Not necessarily an exact image, as in a photograph: paintings, drawings in the sand, retelling real history In other words, they are all simulacra.

In our time, simulacrum is usually understood in the sense in which this word was used by Baudrillard: simulacrum is an image without an original, a representation of something that does not really exist. For example, a simulacrum can be called a picture that seems to be a digital photograph of something, but what it depicts does not actually exist and never existed. Such a fake can be created using special software. The basis for such an interpretation of the concept of "simulacrum" is partly the fact that for Plato the very object of reality, depicted by a picture or sculpture, is in some way a copy in relation to the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe object, eidos, - and the image of this object is a copy of the copy and in in this sense, false, untrue.

Simulacra also refers to a much wider class of objects or phenomena, without adhering to the exact definition given above. This blurring of the use of the concept of simulacrum came from Baudrillard himself, and not in spite of him. For example, Baudrillard called the 1991 Gulf War a simulacrum, in the sense that there was no way for viewers of that war on CNN to know if anything was actually there, or if it was just a dance of pictures and excited propaganda reports on their TV screens. But, following this logic, we can assume that any fiction, lie - a simulacrum. This is wrong. It is in the process of imitation, simulation of reality (an example is CNN's dishonest display of the situation about the Persian Gulf War) that a product of hyperreality is obtained - a simulacrum.

Jean Baudrillard defines the following order of simulacra:

• 1st order - imitations, stuffed animals, copies, fakes. "Forgery works so far only with substance and form, and not with relationships and structure." characteristics of the Renaissance.
• 2 order - functional analogues, series. Characteristics of the era of the industrial revolution.
• 3rd order - hyperreality (money, fashion, DNA, model, public opinion). characteristics of the era of postmodernism.

An illustration of how simulacra are produced can be seen in the film "Wag" (Eng. Wag the Dog- "The tail wags the dog").

There is an opinion that the unlimited semiosis of simulacra in the hyperreality of the postmodern era is doomed to acquire the status of a single and self-sufficient reality.

see also

Notes

Literature

• Baudrillard J. There was no Gulf War (La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu). - 1991.
• Yazykin M. and Dayanov I. Simulacrum (m/f)

Links

• Simulacrum in the encyclopedia "History of Philosophy" (article by M. A. Mozheiko)
• Simulation in the Encyclopedia of Postmodernism (article by M. A. Mozheiko)

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Synonyms:

See what "simulacrum" is in other dictionaries:

- (French simulacre), one of the leading concepts of the philosophy of poststructuralism (see POSTSTRUCTURALISM), in everyday use the word "simulacrum" means "likeness", "appearance", "ghost", etc. One of the most developed versions of the simulacrum theory ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

SIMULACRUM (from Latin Simulacrum, Idola, Phantasma) is the concept of philosophical discourse introduced in ancient thought to characterize, along with images, copies of things, images that are far from similar to things and express a state of mind, ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

- (French simulacres, from simulation simulation) is a term of postmodernism philosophy to designate a non-conceptual means of fixing experience. Genetically goes back to the term ‘S.’ (‘simulacrum’), which in Plato meant ‘copy of a copy’. Put into circulation...

simulacrum- a, m. simulacre m. Appearance, illusion, imaginary. single? military Fake attack, fake maneuver, simulation. I will introduce myself in the mind of the enemy, I will call him from the place now located, I will see what his movements will be for this, otherwise ... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

- (simulacre fr.) One of the key concepts of postmodern aesthetics. It occupies a place in it that belonged to the artistic image in classical aesthetic systems. C. an image of absent reality, a plausible likeness, devoid of ... ... Encyclopedia of cultural studies

- (French simulacres, from simulation simulation) is a term of postmodernism philosophy to designate a non-conceptual means of fixing the experienced state. Introduced by Bataille, interpreted by Klossovsky, Kozhev, Baudrillard and others. Constituting in opposition ... ... The latest philosophical dictionary

Exist., number of synonyms: 3 visibility (32) similarity (27) representation (5) ... Synonym dictionary

simulacrum- SIMULACR (French simulacre, from Latin simulacrum image, likeness) a pseudo-thing that replaces reality, an image of absent reality, a plausible likeness. One of the most popular terms in postmodern philosophy, related to ... ... Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

- (French simulacres, from simulation simulation) is a term of postmodernism philosophy to designate a non-conceptual means of fixing experience. Genetically goes back to the term S. (simulacrum), which in Plato meant a copy of a copy. Put into circulation... History of Philosophy: Encyclopedia

simulacrum- French, Eng. simulacre (from lat. simulacrum image, likeness). One of the most popular in Lately terms of postmodernist oriented philosophical and simply theoretical thought, introduced into wide use by J. Baudrillard. Usually and... Postmodernism. Glossary of terms.

Simulacrum is a word necessary to describe and comprehend many modern processes - from postmodern art to virtual reality. It is no coincidence that even in The Matrix, the hero of Keanu Reeves uses the book of the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, as a hiding place. After all, in fact, the matrix is ​​a simulacrum, that is, a copy of something that does not exist in reality. A computer program reproduces a long-vanished world at the end of the 20th century.

The concept of "simulacrum" first occurs in Latin translations Plato - as the equivalent of the Greek word "eidolon". The Greek philosopher shared the material world and the transcendental world of ideas - eidos. Ideas are embodied in real objects and it is important that this embodiment takes place without distortion. And "eidolon" is a false copy that distorts the prototype idea and does not reflect its essence. And that means violating the harmony of the universe.

Later, the idea of ​​a simulacrum was developed by French postmodern philosophers - Georges Bataille, Gilles Deleuze and Jean Baudrillard. Deleuze offers an unusually bold concept: in his opinion, man is a simulacrum. “God created man in the image and likeness,” writes the philosopher. - However, as a result of the fall, a person loses the likeness, while retaining the image. We become a simulacrum. We give up moral existence in order to enter the stage of aesthetic existence.

One of the main properties of the simulacrum according to Baudrillard is the ability to mask the absence of real reality. Compared to something obviously artificial, the familiar environment seems more "real" - this is the trap.

And Jean Baudrillard considered modern world politics a simulacrum: the authorities feign power, the opposition feigns protest. Mass media only add fuel to the fire - they only imitate the act of communication and the information they transmit does not make sense. As in the most popular film about political technologies "The Tail Wags the Dog" - in order to divert attention from the tarnished reputation of the US president, his PR people play a non-existent war in Albania. A studio report from a “scene of hostilities”, with a girl clutching a kitten to her chest, is nothing more than a simulacrum. The local "lieutenant Kizhe" - a non-existent American soldier, invented specifically to instill a sense of patriotism in the hearts of ordinary Americans - also becomes a simulacrum.

Viktor Pelevin went even further in the novel “Generation P”: there all the media people of Russian television and some of American television become fakes: “Reagan was already animated from the second term. And Bush… Do you remember when he was standing by the helicopter, his comb over his bald head was constantly flying up from the wind and trembling like that? Just a masterpiece. I don't think there was anything close to that in computer graphics. America…” real life conscious production of simulacra is carried out by "information agencies of non-existent news" - the American The Onion and our FogNews. Sometimes the line between fiction and reality is so thin that other publications reprint fake news, taking it at face value.

The visual arts also seized on the idea of ​​a simulacrum - in the first place, pop art. The artist pretends to reproduce nature, but at the same time he does not need nature itself: the shell denoting the object becomes more important than the object itself. Writer and critic Alexander Genis gives the following example: “So, one of Andy Warhol’s early paintings “Peaches” depicts not the fruits themselves, but a can of fruit. This difference is the pathos of the whole trend, which has discovered that in today's world it is not the product that matters, but the packaging, not the essence, but the image.

One of the main properties of the simulacrum according to Baudrillard is the ability to mask the absence of real reality. Compared to something obviously artificial, the familiar environment seems more "real" - this is the trap. As an example, the philosopher cites the famous amusement park: “Disneyland exists in order to hide the fact that Disneyland is actually a “real” country - all of “real” America (much like prisons serve to hide that the entire society , in all its fullness, in all its banal omnipresence, is the place of confinement). Disneyland is presented as imaginary to make us believe that everything else is real."

Ultimately, simulacra become more real than reality itself - and from this arises hyperreality, that is, an environment closed on itself, which no longer correlates with objective reality. A world where plausibly depicted fantasy becomes identical to reality. So in a sense, we are all already living in the Matrix.

How to say

Incorrect “Imagine, Vasya took time off from work - he claims that he has become ill with his stomach. “Who do you believe, he’s a famous simulacrum!” That's right: "simulator".

That's right, "The relationship between Volodya and Sasha has long turned into a simulacrum - it seems they are more neighbors than friends."

Correct "Consumption is a simulacrum of happiness, an endless pursuit of what is not."

Every week the site tries difficult terms in human language.

Simulacrum (from Latin simulacrum - “pretend, pretend”) - a copy that does not have an original.

Everything is simple and clear, except for the main question: how is it in general?

The author of the term is the left-wing French philosopher Georges Bataille. The term was later developed by Deleuze and Baudrillard. By the way, in the famous film “The Matrix”, Keanu Reeves uses Baudrillard’s “Simulacra and Simulations” as a hiding place for the disk. And it is Baudrillard's interpretation that is mainly used in modern society.

The key characteristic of the simulacrum according to Baudrillard is the ability to mask the absence of real reality. This insidious illusion is so plausible that, against its background, what really exists seems to be a fiction.

In general, this term has become a little blurred, and now it is often understood as a simulation of reality in a broad sense.

For example, if we assume that a person is created in the image and likeness of God, but there is no God, it turns out that a person is a simulacrum.

One of the famous works of Dali is called "Transparent Simulacrum". However, with a high probability all his paintings can be considered as such.

But it is worth distinguishing a simulation of reality from ordinary fiction or lies. The simulacrum is born in the process of imitation of reality and is a product of hyperreality, the key term of postmodernism. We know this is too much.