Virtual Reality, Seeing-In, and Twofoldness
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Virtual reality headsets present us with two images, one directly before each of our eyes. One might therefore suppose that virtual reality offers experiences with the phenomenology of many other depictive images—an experience of seeing-in. This paper argues that the phenomenology of virtual reality does not involve seeing-in due to our lacking the required awareness of virtual reality images’ configuration. Instead, virtual reality is intended to generate an experience resembling that of everyday perception, artificially recreating the phenomenology of various experiences. Interestingly, however, the present technical limitations of virtual reality frequently also generate an under-recognized form of twofold experience, where we are perceptually aware of both the content of a virtual reality image and the way that content is represented, yet still without our seeing-in. But while this twofold experience is often unintended, it can also be deliberately aimed at to help guard against some of virtual reality’s potential harms.
Author: Alex Fisher
Institution: Tilburg University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,789
OpenAlex ID: W4414965177