Exploring Virtual Reality Through Ihde’s Instrumental Realism

Based on Ihde’s theory, this paper explores the relationship between virtual reality (VR) as an instrument and phenomenology. It reviews the “technological revolution” spurred by the development of VR technology and discusses how VR has been used to study subjective experience, explore perception and embodiment, enhance empathy and perspective, and investigate altered states of consciousness. The paper emphasizes the role of VR as an instrumental technology, particularly its ability to expand human perception and cognition. Reflecting on this in conjunction with the work of Husserl and Ihde, among others, it revisits the potential of VR to provide new avenues for scientific inquiry and experience and to transform our understanding of the world through VR.