Abstract :
[en] In this paper, I provide a new solution to the “gamer’s dilemma” (Luck in Ethics Inf Technol 11(1):31–36, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-008-9168-4, 2009) which is an open problem at the intersection of ethics and aesthetics: the problem consists in reconciling two widespread moral intuitions about virtual actions, i.e. that virtual murder is morally permissible whereas virtual paedophilia is not. To solve the problem, I apply a well-known notion coming from the philosophy of fiction, viz. imaginative resistance, which I adapt as ludic resistance. Connecting the two bodies of literature (the philosophy of fiction and the philosophy of video games) is original and, I argue, helpful: first, it solves the problem under discussion; second, it provides a way of looking back at imaginative resistance in an interesting new light. In (video) games, as opposed to traditional, non-ludic fictions, ”resistance” is interpreted against an implicit notion of agency.
Funding text :
I discovered the gamer\u2019s dilemma thanks to a very insightful informal discussion with Hannah Kim who invited me to inquire into virtual pornography during the British Society of Aesthetics annual conference in September 2022. Shortly afterward, Alexandre Declos gave me an opportunity to present sketchy ideas in a session of the Metaphysics Group of the coll\u00E8ge de France, under the title \u201CIs virtual sex sex?\u201D: thanks to all the participants for the questions and suggestions made. In parallel, I shared the sames ideas informally at the Bobigny feminist house-share in a long, heated, and decisive discussion: special thanks to Elvina Le Poul and the housemates on this one. Thanks to Bruno Leclercq, Nathan Wildman, Merel Semeijn, Enrico Terrone (and the Genoa reading group), and Manuel Rebuschi for helpful comments on earlier drafts. I thank two anonymous reviewers for this journal for sending long and challenging reviews. Finally, many thanks to my partner Marion Renauld who never thought I am an appalling father and often wonders about how the next civilisation will look at us.
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