Difference between the Real World and Virtual World

The development of virtual reality brings an old and historic question on the difference between the real world and unreal world. In this paper, starting from the concept of representation, I argued that what we call “virtual reality” is a representation of an actual or non-actual world and the criterion of difference between the “real world” and “virtual reality” is whether we present it with the intention of using it as a representation. After that, the thesis is demonstrated again from different theories of scientific representation. Therefore, the intuitive distinction between the “real world” and “virtual reality” can be drawn on the epistemological criterion; that is to say, the virtual world is a representation while the real world is not.