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<p>Virtual Reality (VR) precipitates a fundamental crisis in moral reasoning by dismantling its chronological foundations. While existing normative frameworks—such as Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism—predicate moral agency on linear, irreversible time (<i>Chronos</i>), the VR engine operationalizes a temporal logic that is programmable, iterative, and recursive. We diagnose this operational contradiction as the “Death of Chronos”: a state where the diachronic continuity required for traditional ethical identity is shattered. Against this backdrop, we explicitly reject a blind anthropocentrism that seeks merely to “humanize” the simulation by imposing physical temporal constraints onto the digital. Instead, we argue for the necessity of rethinking the ethical subject itself—one capable of dwelling within the “Programmable Flow”, the distinct techno-ontological milieu of virtual action. We propose a theoretical framework to reconstruct an instantaneous ethical subject: a Agambenian <i>form-of-life</i> that derives normative weight from the sheer intensity of the absolute present. Ultimately, this reconstruction does not lead to solipsism, but establishes a new foundation for co-existence: enabling the subject, anchored in the virtual “now”, to guide both the self and the community toward a shared ethical horizon.</p>

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After chronos: a new temporal epistemology for ethics in virtual reality

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月10日

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  • Xuantong Li,
  • Xuechuan Fu

摘要

Virtual Reality (VR) precipitates a fundamental crisis in moral reasoning by dismantling its chronological foundations. While existing normative frameworks—such as Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism—predicate moral agency on linear, irreversible time (Chronos), the VR engine operationalizes a temporal logic that is programmable, iterative, and recursive. We diagnose this operational contradiction as the “Death of Chronos”: a state where the diachronic continuity required for traditional ethical identity is shattered. Against this backdrop, we explicitly reject a blind anthropocentrism that seeks merely to “humanize” the simulation by imposing physical temporal constraints onto the digital. Instead, we argue for the necessity of rethinking the ethical subject itself—one capable of dwelling within the “Programmable Flow”, the distinct techno-ontological milieu of virtual action. We propose a theoretical framework to reconstruct an instantaneous ethical subject: a Agambenian form-of-life that derives normative weight from the sheer intensity of the absolute present. Ultimately, this reconstruction does not lead to solipsism, but establishes a new foundation for co-existence: enabling the subject, anchored in the virtual “now”, to guide both the self and the community toward a shared ethical horizon.