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A Profound Reality. AI image Introduction Commentary on Jean Baudrillard often treats his theory of simulacra and his critique of political economy as distinct phases. A closer reading, however, reveals a structural continuity between these domains. This article argues that what Baudrillard calls “deeper reality” in the first order of simulacra can be understood as the semiotic analogue of use-value in classical political economy. Both operate as grounding principles that secure the legitimacy of a system—economic or representational—while concealing their own historical production. Tracing the erosion of these grounds makes visible a shared trajectory: the displacement of referential anchoring by autonomous relational structures. Use-Value and the Problem of Grounding In Capital Volume I , Karl Marx distinguishes between use-value and exchange-value . The former refers to the utility of an object, its capacity to satisfy a need; the latter expresses its equivalence within a net...

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. AI image Introduction The phrase “the first order of simulacra reflects a deeper reality” is frequently repeated in commentaries on Jean Baudrillard, often as if its meaning were self-evident. Yet Baudrillard himself never treats “reality” as a neutral, timeless, or ontological category. This article argues that, in the context of first-order simulacra, “deeper reality” does not refer to an essence hidden behind appearances, but to a historically specific belief in the world as ordered, meaningful, and guaranteed by transcendent structures such as nature, God, and social hierarchy. Clarifying this point helps prevent the projection of both longstanding and subsequent philosophical concerns onto Baudrillard’s early analysis of representation. From Symbolic Exchange to Representation Before the emergence of simulacra, Baudrillard locates pre-modern societies within what he calls symbolic exchange. In such formations, objects and images do not primari...