Types of Virtual Objects

Abstract

The term “virtual” was used by the ancient Romans. Medieval scholastics also used it. It entered the everyday and scientific language only in the second half of the XXth century with the emergence of digital technologies. Today, even children use it, and lawyers are discussing the issue of recognizing virtual objects as objects of ownership. But to include the term “virtual object” in the system of modern sci­entific categories, it must be strictly defined, as well as a classification of vir­tual objects must be done. The first of these two tasks is being actively solved. In the article “What is a virtual object?” I took part in this work. I intend to make progress in solving the second task: to identify the types of virtual objects, to con­sider their subordination. Virtual objects are understood in the article as sensual and rational knowledge about objects that arise in the absence of these objects, as a result of the autonomous activity of the subject’s brain, and are experienced by the latter in a strictly fixed interval as these objects themselves. This is exactly what happens, for example, in a dream. The thesis that all virtual objects are lo­cated in the phenomenal world of the subject is substantiated. The critique of Plato’s and Popper’s theories of the third world as a container of virtual objects is given. The virtual objects arising within the boundaries of sensual and rational cognition are distinguished. It is shown that the first ones include virtual objects that arise in dreams, hallucinations, perceptions and illusions. The role of illusory virtual objects in modern computer games is analyzed. Virtual objects generated by rational knowledge are divided into empirical and theoretical. It is shown that theo­retical (abstract) objects have all the attributes of virtual ones.