TITLE: The experience of philosophical theory and the understanding of the virtual. Outline of a philosophy of virtuality.

 ABSTRACT: In this paper, I attempt to outline the meanings behind the original notion of theory and the intimate connection this experience of theory has with the idea of virtuality. In order to do so, I will analyse how Plato changed the paradigm in which the ancient Greeks related to knowledge, replacing an auditory paradigm, typical of pre-Socratic thought, with a predominantly visual one, which has shaped the entire philosophical vocabulary up to the present day. With this change, however, Plato also gets a glimpse on a phenomenon alien to the pre-Socratic philosophers: the power (dynamis) with which the ultimate object of knowledge, the idea of the Good, understood as primordial virtuality, influences and guides human consciousness towards truth. As I argue, this phenomenon of the power with which an object in general influences our consciousness is the central point from which we can develop a philosophy of digital virtuality, in order to understand the current phenomena concerning virtual reality and the digital world. 

Keywords: Ancient Greek philosophy, Plato, Parmenides, virtuality, epistemology, meontology 

Publicația: Revista de Filosofie (Tomul LXXI), nr. 1/2024

Anul Publicării: 2024