Virtual Realism: Really Realism or only Virtually so? A Comment on D. J. Chalmers's Petrus Hispanus Lectures.
What is the status of a cat in a virtual reality environment? Is it a real object? Or part of a fiction? Virtual realism, as defended by D. J. Chalmers, takes it to be a virtual object that really exists, that has properties and is involved in real events. His preferred specification of virtual real...
| Publicado en: | Disputatio: International Journal of Philosophy Vol. 11; no. 55; pp. 297 - 332 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Paradigm Publishing Services
Dec2019
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=144290598&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 144290598 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0873626X 1CM2 jtl: Disputatio: International Journal of Philosophy issn: 0873626X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2019 vid: 11 iid: 55 pid: 35924 pub: Paradigm Publishing Services artinfo: ui: 144290598 10.2478/disp-2019-0008 ppf: 297 ppct: 35 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.4MB tig: atl: Virtual Realism: Really Realism or only Virtually so? A Comment on D. J. Chalmers's Petrus Hispanus Lectures. aug: au: Beisbart, Claus affil: University of Bern su: Virtual reality Computer simulation Sound Fictionalism (Philosophy) Ontology sug: subj: Virtual reality Computer simulation Sound Fictionalism (Philosophy) Ontology keyword: fictional model fictionalism model ontology ab: What is the status of a cat in a virtual reality environment? Is it a real object? Or part of a fiction? Virtual realism, as defended by D. J. Chalmers, takes it to be a virtual object that really exists, that has properties and is involved in real events. His preferred specification of virtual realism identifies the cat with a digital object. The project of this paper is to use a comparison between virtual reality environments and scientific computer simulations to critically engage with Chalmers's position. I first argue that, if it is sound, his virtual realism should also be applied to objects that figure in scientific computer simulations, e.g. to simulated galaxies. This leads to a slippery slope because it implies an unreasonable proliferation of digital objects. A philosophical analysis of scientific computer simulations suggests an alternative picture: The cat and the galaxies are parts of fictional models for which the computer provides model descriptions. This result motivates a deeper analysis of the way in which Chalmers builds up his realism. I argue that he buys realism too cheap. For instance, he does not really specify what virtual objects are supposed to be. As a result, rhetoric aside, his virtual realism isn't far from a sort of fictionalism. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Disputatio: International Journal of Philosophy is the property of Paradigm Publishing Services and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Disputatio: International Journal of Philosophy holder: Paradigm Publishing Services dt: @attributes: year: 2019 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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