László Ropolyi (Hungary 2018) graduated in physics and philosophy at the Eötvös University, Budapest. Budapest. He holds a doctorate in biophysics and a PhD in philosophy. He taught philosophical courses for science and mathematics students at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science of the ELTE University. He had a wide range of research interests stretching from “real” scientific research to various historical and philosophical issues. More recently, his research was focused on the philosophy of the Internet – trying to understand the complex nature of the Internet and the impact of its use on human life.
Topic: Virtuality as Third Reality: Representation Ontologies in the Information Age
One of the most important philosophical lessons of our age is the understanding of the social and cultural consequences of the use of new, representation (information, communication, cognitive and cultural) technologies. In this understanding, new kind of ontological problems are coming to be and their analysis has crucial significance. It seems to be clear that the “classical” concept of reality is not sensible enough to depict the situations created by the extended use of representation technologies. We need new concepts of reality. The concept of virtuality as a third form of being can be considered as a likely approach to a better understanding of reality within the social and cultural spheres. My research intends to analyze this virtuality – reality problem in two contexts: 1) as a crucial problem of philosophical and ontological thinking, and 2) as a rising problem of the contemporary culture.
