Abstract

My paper addresses the question of sign-value in the context of Jean Baudrillard’s critique/theory of semiology. This concept pertains to the conceptual genealogy of the Baudrillardian simulation theory. Our aim was to disclose the position of this concept in the Baudrillardian theories and to offer some insights related to the relevance of sign-value to the field of social theory once it is used in analysing and understanding the functioning and the constitution of second order signifying systems at the societal level. The article deploys itself in five argumentative steps: 1) sign-object – complicity/entanglement between value and meaning; 2) the critique of the political economy of the sign ; 4) developing and radicalization of it’s critique against the classical theories of the sign 4) beyond reference – the emancipated pure structural game of value and 5) the birth of the theory of simulation