Vegas, Disney, and the Metaverse
transcript Verlag eBooks August 24, 2022 Gundolf S. Freyermuth
David J. Chalmers' book "Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy" examines historical philosophical skepticism about distinguishing reality from illusion, tracing it from ancient Chinese, Indian, and Greek thinkers through Descartes. Chalmers interprets Zhuangzi's butterfly dream, Narada's dream of living as a woman, and Plato's cave allegory as raising philosophical questions about knowledge, reality, and value. He contends that these classical concerns about the perceptibility of material reality persisted into the modern era, culminating in Descartes' Meditations, which Chalmers argues set the agenda for subsequent Western philosophy regarding virtual worlds and reality.