Felt Reality and the Opacity of Perception Dokic and Martin

# Felt Reality and the Opacity of Perception Dokic and Martin **Keywords:** Sense of presence Sense of reality Sense of acquaintance Derealization Parkinson’s disease Virtual reality Metacognitive feeling Naı̈ve Realism Intentionalism **Abstract:** We investigate the nature of the sense of presence that usually accompanies perceptual experience. We show that the notion of a sense of presence can be interpreted in two ways, corresponding to the sense that we are acquainted with an object, and the sense that the object is real. In this essay, we focus on the sense of reality. Drawing on several case studies such as derealization disorder, Parkinson’s disease and virtual reality, we argue that the sense of reality is two-way independent from the spatial and sensory contents of experience. We suggest that the sense of reality is an affective experience akin to a metacognitive feeling. Finally, we present a potentially important implication of our account for the current debate between Intentionalism and Naı̈ve Realism. Since perception is ‘‘opaque’’ with respect to the reality of what is perceived, Intentionalism cannot refer to the sense of reality as what differentiates perception from sensory-like experiences such as imaginings. In contrast, Naı̈ve Realism has an independent explanation of the specificity of perception. **Authors:** [[Jérôme Dokic1 • Jean-Rémy Martin2]]