File spoon-archives/baudrillard.archive/baudrillard_1997/97-04-26.234, message 106


Date: Thu, 17 Apr 97 14:50 EDT
From: David_I_PADDY-AT-umail.umd.edu (dp89)
Subject: Re: The End of the Dialectic 


>I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can explain to me Jean's argument
>that we have reached the end of the dialectic.  Or point me in some
>direction.  I've read his saying so, but I guess I wasn't paying close
>attention to what he meant exactly, was merely allowing myself to be seduced
>by his rhetoric.  Is he anywhere clear on this matter, or can something
>please explicate?
>
>Thank you.
>
>Banes

When JB writes about the "end of the dialectic" several images come to my
mind.  The first is of the spiral (an image JB himself uses if i recall), or
rather a DNA helix--the two terms of a dialectic may constantly switch
places but they never actually come together in a Hegelian synthesis.  (I
know that image is not very accurate, but that could be the nature of
images....)  The other image is of an ever widening "V":  In this case the
terms of the dialectic enter hyper states of extremes that move farther and
farther away from each other; instead of the true and false in a dialectic,
JB is speaking about the "more true than true" and the "more false than
false".
I don't know if I'm making any sense, or if this is of any help.  It would
be hard to locate specific points where Baudrillard talks about these things
since they seem to permeate his later works, esp. from Simulations on; i.e.
Fatal Strategies, Transparencies of Evil; even various essays in Baudrillard
Live might be of help.
dAve


   

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