TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stürzer, Anja
T1  - Dream worlds and cyberspace : intersubjective tertiary reality in fantasy and science fiction
T2  - Komparatistik online : komparatistische Internet-Zeitschrift / Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
N2  - What is real? Or rather, is that which we perceive with our senses "real", in the sense that it objectively exists? This question has kept philosophy and literature busy for centuries. An obvious answer is mirrored by language: The German verb "Wissen" for instance, as well as the English "to wit", derive from Proto-Germanic *witanan, "to have seen": We know that which we have seen. Equivalent verbs in Romanic languages derive from Latin "sapere", "to taste, have taste". Sensory input determines our knowledge of the world - a practical truth proven also in scientific experiments.
For Plato, of course, it wasn't so simple. In his allegory of the cave, he shows that "to see" doesn't necessarily mean "to know" in the sense of "to have a correct view of objective reality". His cave dwellers perceive only shadows of artificial objects on a wall, while the true light of reality remains outside, unseen and unknown. Their knowledge of "the world" is an illusion, a fiction existing only in their (and the fiction-makers') heads – a shared sensory experience misleading to a limited, distorted and conventional view of reality. Because we're bound to the physical world by the limitations of our bodies, sensory experience is no valid proof for its ultimate reality.
KW  - Wirklichkeit
KW  - Virtuelle Realität
KW  - Realität <Begriff>
Y1  - 2013
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/36205
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-362058
UR  - http://www.komparatistik-online.de/jahrgaenge/2013
SN  - 1864-8533
VL  - 2013
SP  - 167
EP  - 180
PB  - Justus-Liebig-Univ.
CY  - Gießen
ER  -