Jean Baudrillard, Richard Rorty, RIP

It just came to my attention that the French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard died last year at the age of 77. He represented almost everything that was wrong with contemporary continental philosophy -- and yet his work was the stimulus for one of my own short stories. Which only goes to show that even those who oppose the very idea of value have their value. Dennis Dutton has an old review of one of Baudrillard's works that gets at many of the problems I too have with Baudrillard.

Also, a year ago, we lost RIchard Rorty, who was as bad for American philosophy as Baudrillard was for continental philosophy. So why do I draw your attention to these two deaths? Because of the absurdity that I have read these two philosophers, and their ideas have affected our culture and society (mostly negatively, in my opinion), and I have only just now learned of their passing. But all I hear about on the news are things like the Eliot Spitzer scandal -- something about someone nobody will know a thing about in 100 years. It is likely that this won't be the case with Rorty and Baudillard.