Что такое виртуальный объект?

Abstract

The term “virtual object” today refers to a whole class of the diverse entities – from virtual elementary particles to computer game characters. The article con­siders only one subclass of this class. Virtual objects are interpreted here as a kind of phenomenal objects – sensual images of objectively existing objects, psychologically experienced by the subject as these objects themselves. There are two types of such objects: non-virtual, resulting from the direct impact of ob­jects of the objective world on the subject’s sense organs, and virtual, generated by the autonomous activity of his brain, for example, in a dream. Non-virtual ob­jects are primary, virtual ones arise on their basis. This allows to divide the arti­cle into two sections: the first deals with non-virtual objects, and the second deals with virtual phenomenal objects. The main thesis of the article: there are intervals within which the subject’s experience of sensual images of objects as objects themselves only simplifies and facilitates cognitive and practical activity without distorting its final results. In the first section of the article, this thesis is substantiated on the basis of non-virtual objects, in the second – on the basis of virtual phenomenal objects. The division of labor that has historically devel­oped between them is considered: non-virtual phenomenal objects participate in the implementation of the practical activities of people and higher animals, virtual ones – in preparation for it. The evolution of phenomenal virtual objects from genetically primary, arising in a dream, to higher ones, generated by digital technologies, is considered. The hope is expressed that the analysis done in the article creates the basis for the study of other varieties of virtual objects.