“Baudrillard took the theory of simulacra from Deleuze. But he was a fierce enemy of Deleuze and Foucault - he wrote the critical: Forget Foucault (“Oublier Foucault” in French). Though he was a colleague of Deleuze in Nanterre as a professor and sociologist, one of his “Hobbies” seems to have been to undermine the influence of Deleuze, the Althusser school, and a lot more. Perhaps he was being antagonistic to provoke discourse.” –Harald: facebook.com/groups/2232336 … up_comment
Actually, as I understand it, the concept of simulacra goes back to Plato or maybe is applied to him. And while Baudrillard may have gotten wind of the concept via Deleuze, the two approaches to it are quite different. Deleuze’s sense of it seems to be in what he called the virtual which, as I understand it, has to do with the way time works in the presence of consciousness: the way the present is always some unknowable transition point (if you could call it a point (between an approaching future and a receding past. This comes up a lot in my readings on Deleuze in terms of the “past present that was never truly present”. This is why Deleuze is said to have argued (perhaps in opposition to Baudrillard (that it makes no sense to pine for the good old days when everything was more real when we have always worked in the virtual: a flashback, perhaps, to Kant’s distinction between noumenon and phenomenon.
Baudrillard’s approach to it, on the other hand, shines on his being described as a Sci-fi writer who happens to be writing philosophy. In his case, we have to make the distinction between simulacra and the Simulacrum. Besides the having to recognize “simulacra” as the plural of the singular “simulacrum”, in the case of Baudrillard, we have to recognize the almost paranoid connotations of The Simulacrum: the entity that, via media, puts a delusional and hegemonic sheen on the Capitalistic machinery we all live with, that which we cannot point to in the same way we might that water at atmospheric pressure boils at 212 degrees, but nevertheless seems to have a very real effect on our lives.
But you’re right: Baudrillard was an arrogant character. As I remember reading him, he reminds me of an old board nemesis of mine who seemed to punctuate every statement with a triumphant “Hah!!!”. Still, he is fuel for the fire and I hope to eventually get back to him. And he was a major influence on movies such as The Matrix –even though most of them miss the point as concerns Capitalism. And Baudrillard did have a Marxist cynicism when it came to Capitalism. He just (a lot like Zizek (felt like we were resisting it in ways that only contributed to the Capitalist cause.
“So, while Baudrllard is a fierce enemy of Deleuze, Rorty is not very Deleuzian.”
Yes! There is a clear difference between Rorty and Deleuze. And as you suggest, that difference of sensibility was not nearly as hostile as it was between Baudrillard and Deleuze. Rorty, as far as I know, mainly expressed that difference through indifference. I’m really not sure if he ever acknowledged or even knew of Deleuze’s existence. And all I have seen from Deleuze on Rorty was a funny little aside referring to the bourgeoisie nature of Rorty’s style (that which Rorty himself jokingly referred to in interviews (in What is Philosophy: dinner and conversation at the Rorty’s.
And we have to consider here that most of Deleuze’s works were starting to get translated in the 90’s while Rorty’s salad days were in the 80’s. And Deleuze died around 95. Had the timelines been different, there is every possibility that the two might have developed a better appreciation of what the other was doing.
Where I see the overlap is in their common desire to facilitate (via creativity (our evolution as a species and their recognition of the kind of blockages that come from traditional and neo-classicist dogma’s concerning what constitutes a legitimate assertion. And it would be a lot easier for me if I could distinguish the style of Rorty and Deleuze by noting Rorty’s emphasis on discourse (a social thing (as compared to Deleuze’s emphasis on the individual process. But I would argue that Deleuze (while earlier emphasizing personal evolution in such books as Difference and Repetition (w/ the influence of Guattarri (was approaching Rorty’s appreciation of discourse in The Anti-Oedipus and all its talk about things like machines and social production.
Maybe it’s just me. But I’m finding it real easy to consolidate the two.