Towards Post-Marx: From the Mirror of Production to the Mirror of Signs: A Textual Analysis of Early Baudrillard's Thought

Author: Yang Haifeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Although the early thought of Baudrillard was generally within the theoretical framework of Western Marxism and took Marx's logic of production as its analytical framework, he also believed that with the advent of the consumer society, modern capitalist society had been controlled by codes, and external power control had transformed into self-investment at the unconscious level. In the consumer society, neither objects nor subjects hold the dominant position; rather, signs dominate everything. Therefore, Marx's critique of political economy must be combined with the findings of modern semiotics to develop a semiotic critique of political economy. This book reveals the internal logic of the development of Baudrillard's early thought through textual analysis methods. Although the early thought of Baudrillard was generally within the theoretical framework of Western Marxism and took Marx's logic of production as its analytical framework, he also believed that with the advent of the consumer society, modern capitalist society had been controlled by codes, and external power control had transformed into self-investment at the unconscious level. In the consumer society, neither objects nor subjects hold the dominant position; rather, signs dominate everything. Therefore, Marx's critique of political economy must be combined with the findings of modern semiotics to develop a semiotic critique of political economy. It is precisely in this process of integration that Baudrillard became aware of the differences between his own philosophical approach and that of Marx. He believed that Marx's philosophical critique, which started from political economy, still remained within the ideology of modern capitalism. He argued that in the face of modern capitalist society, it was necessary to shift from Marx's logic of production to the logic of signs, replacing the semiotic critique of political economy with a symbolic system of symbolic exchange. Through his critique of the mirror of production, Baudrillard began to turn toward post-Marxist thought. Although Baudrillard raised some profound questions, his one-sided reading of Marx and modern capitalist society led him to become trapped in the mirror of signs.