From Plato's Cave to Virtual Caves: Appearance-Reality and Value Transformation

Abstract

This study examines the problem arising from the impact of developing technology and digitalization on how humans perceive the relationship between appearance and reality, and how this problem reshapes individual value judgments. Plato's distinction between opinion (doxa) and truth is considered a fundamental expression of the ontological and epistemological structure between appearance and reality; how this distinction is reproduced through digital communication technologies and social media platforms is discussed within the context of the problem of virtual reality. Through Plato's famous " Allegory of the Cave" and Baudrillard's concepts of simulation, simulacrum and hyperreality, the study aims to reinterpret the Platonic distinction between appearance and reality in the context of the spirit of the digital age.