Existential, Instrumental and Cyber Spaces as Ontological Modi of Human Being

Nova Prisutnost, Croatia. 2020. Vol. 18. No. 3. P. 485–499.

Motorina L., Veronica M. Sytnik

Context and relevance of the research: the task of developing a general theoretical basis and methodology of ontological problems of interaction and interrelation of the Internet space and the physical world comes forward with the formation of the virtual computer environment determined both by the presence of a human being in computer network and presence of computer network in the life world of the human being. Virtual reality, even in its current state, is already widely recognized and described in academic sources. There are prospects of its application in medicine, education, professional training, space, military, art, automotive industry, shipbuilding, trade, leisure, consulting assistance to population, administration, and other spheres of management. According to academic forecasts, intensive, large-scale, multidirectional development of virtual computer environment will continue in the 21st century. The purpose of the study is to carry out a systematic analysis of the concepts: existential space, instrumental space and cyberspace in their interrelationship and interaction; to propose the author’s definition of existential space as a methodological construction for the study of its ontological modi: instrumental space and cyberspace; to define the ontological characteristics of instrumental space and cyberspace, their common features (connection) and distinction; to reveal features of existential immersion of a person into virtual computer reality – the process of emotional perception of existence in the information field – an artificially created world of ‘people and things,’ as well as subjective-personal effects accompanying this process. 

Keywords: ontology, cyberspace, Existential experience, virtual reality, existential project, Enframing (Gestell)