Common Sense and Common Disease. The Pandemic and the Expansion of the Non-real

The starting point of this article is the intersection of two global phenomena—the pandemic and the internet. The pandemic and its possible social consequences are viewed from the perspective of two differences that constitute the human world: the difference between certainty and uncertainty, as well as the difference between the real and the unreal. A new mixture of the Real (the accidental, the unexpected, the uncertain, the dangerous, etc.) and the Non-real upsets the balance between them in favor of the Non-real each time a certain system of meanings is expressed in different texts in the broadest sense of the word. The Non-real is not unreal (absurd, contradictory) and not the Illusory. The latter belongs only to the Real. Furthermore, not only the role of philosophy and science in the formation of the virtual world and non-illusory consciousness is discussed, but also the issue of the freedom of thought in an era of the expansion of various kinds of texts, from comprehensive physical theories and literary works to advertisements for certain products.