ABSTRACT
The concept of the simulacrum does not originate with Baudrillard, even though he has played a significant role in putting it into circulation in contemporary social and political theory. It is best understood in relation to several ancient (Egyptian and Greek) and modern (French) religious, metaphysical and aesthetic traditions. Most important, however, is that in Western metaphysics the simulacrum has always stood at some distance from ‘the real’ in a position of weakness, having been banished ontologically to the margins.
