Vim does not display other files in the same folder when opening a file

On a brand new debian installation, when no ~/.vimrc is present, vim shows all files in the current directory when trying to open another file for editing in normal/command mode, as shown below: However, when a ~/.vimrc is present, even an empty one, I suddenly cannot see other files in the same directory. I am looking for the vim option that I have accidentally disabled, so that I can re-enable this behavior.