Conférence Zuzanna Rucisnska - "Do we really act In VR ?"

Zuzanna Rucińska

Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)

Centre for Philosophical Psychology, Department of Philosophy

University of Antwerp, Belgium

Do we really act In VR?

In philosophical debates, there is an ongoing discussion of whether (and in what sense) virtual actions are "real". On the one hand, virtual realists claim that virtual actions are real, digital action, taking place in the digital realm, but they contrast it to biological actions. On the other hand, virtual fictionalists propose that all virtual actions are really just "fictions", comparing them to illusions. In this talk I offer a new theoretical option inspired by the Enactivist framework that aims to account for agency in virtual worlds. It proposes that there is real action to be considered in VR - the action of the player who is engaging with a complex technological interface, and the virtual acts are just extensions of our biological, sensorimotor acts, but in a new virtual space. I then explain the important social and pragmatic consequences to consider from the enactive view of agency in VR, such as re-thinking what it means to engage in virtual abuse, rape or violence in game worlds.