Virtual reality: Digital or fictional?

McDonnell, N. and Wildman, N. (2019) Virtual reality: Digital or fictional? Disputatio, 11(55), pp. 371-397. (doi: 10.2478/disp-2019-0004)

Abstract

Are the objects and events that take place in Virtual Reality genuinely real? Those who answer this question in the affirmative are realists, and those who answer in the negative are irrealists. In this paper we argue against the realist position, as given by Chalmers (2017), and present our own preferred irrealist account of the virtual. We start by disambiguat- ing two potential versions of the realist position—weak and strong— and then go on to argue that neither is plausible. We then introduce a Waltonian variety of fictionalism about the virtual, arguing that this sort of irrealist approach avoids the problems of the realist positions, fits with a unifying theory of representational works, and offers a better ac- count of the phenomenology of engaging in virtual experiences.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Special Issue: Chalmers on Virtual Reality
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: McDonnell, Professor Neil and Wildman, Nathan
• Authors: McDonnell, N., and Wildman, N.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy
• Journal Name: Disputatio
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• ISSN: 0873-626X
• ISSN (Online): 0873-626X
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 McDonnell and Wildman
• First Published: First published in Disputatio 11(55):371-397
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license