Abstract

This paper proposes to recover the two sign theories belonging to Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles S. Peirce in an analysis of Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulation. The hypothesis of our approach is that Baudrillard's critique of real-virtual relationship circumscribes the question of sign and ‘reference’, both from the economic perspective of ‘use-value’ and from the ontological perspective of ‘signs as equipment’ as developed by Martin Heidegger in Being and Time. Our aim is to overcome the difficulty of conciliation between linguistic-oriented semiology and Peircean semiotics & pragmatics by investigating the sign theories of each tradition, as well as their echoes in Heideggerian ontology. This will enable a better understanding of Baudrillard’s critique of ‘hyperreality’ within the philosophical and cultural background of the 20th century.