# Sign value

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Philosophical concept

This article is about the concept of sign value as recognized by sociologists and economists. For numeral signs having additive values, see [Sign-value notation](/source/Sign-value_notation). For a representation of signed numbers in computers, see [Signed number representations](/source/Signed_number_representations).

In [sociology](/source/Sociology) and in [economics](/source/Economics), the term **sign value** denotes and describes the [value](/source/Theory_of_value_(economics)) accorded to an object because of the [prestige](/source/Social_status) (social status) that it imparts upon the possessor, rather than the material value and [utility](/source/Utility) derived from the function and the primary use of the object. For example, the buyer of a [Rolls-Royce](/source/Rolls-Royce_(car)) limousine might partly value the automobile as transport, yet might also value it as a sign that *signifies* his or her wealth to a particular community and to society in general. The automobile's transport-function is primary, from which arises its use-value, whilst the social prestige function is secondary, from which arises its sign-value.

The French sociologist [Jean Baudrillard](/source/Jean_Baudrillard) proposed the theory of sign value as a philosophic and economic counterpart to the dichotomy of [exchange-value](/source/Exchange-value) *vs.* [use-value](/source/Use-value), which [Karl Marx](/source/Karl_Marx) recognized as a characteristic of capitalism as an economic system.[1]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Jean Baudrillard"](http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/baudrillard/#1). *Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*. 2008-12-24.

v t e Jean Baudrillard Books The System of Objects (1968) The Mirror of Production (1973) In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities (1978) Simulacra and Simulation (1981) The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991) The Singular Objects of Architecture (2002) Concepts Hyperreality Sign value

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