The world is the planet Earth and all life
upon it, including human civilization.
In a philosophical context, the "world" is
the whole of the physical Universe, or an
ontological world (the "world" of an individual).
In a theological context, the world is the
material or the profane sphere, as opposed
to the celestial, spiritual, transcendent
or sacred spheres.
"End of the world" scenarios refer to the
end of human history, often in religious contexts.
The history of the world is commonly understood
as spanning the major geopolitical developments
of about five millennia, from the first civilizations
to the present.
In terms such as world religion, world language,
world government, and world war, the term
world suggests an international or intercontinental
scope without necessarily implying participation
of every part of the world.
The world population is the sum of all human
populations at any time; similarly, the world
economy is the sum of the economies of all
societies or countries, especially in the
context of globalization.
Terms such as "world championship", "gross
world product", and "world flags" imply the
sum or combination of all sovereign states.
== Etymology and usage ==
The English word world comes from the Old
English weorold (-uld), weorld, worold (-uld,
-eld), a compound of wer "man" and eld "age,"
which thus means roughly "Age of Man."
The Old English is a reflex of the Common
Germanic *wira-alđiz, also reflected in Old
Saxon werold, Old Dutch werilt, Old High German
weralt, Old Frisian warld and Old Norse verǫld
(whence the Icelandic veröld).The corresponding
word in Latin is mundus, literally "clean,
elegant", itself a loan translation of Greek
cosmos "orderly arrangement."
While the Germanic word thus reflects a mythological
notion of a "domain of Man" (compare Midgard),
presumably as opposed to the divine sphere
on the one hand and the chthonic sphere of
the underworld on the other, the Greco-Latin
term expresses a notion of creation as an
act of establishing order out of chaos.
"World" distinguishes the entire planet or
population from any particular country or
region: world affairs pertain not just to
one place but to the whole world, and world
history is a field of history that examines
events from a global (rather than a national
or a regional) perspective.
Earth, on the other hand, refers to the planet
as a physical entity, and distinguishes it
from other planets and physical objects.
"World" was also classically used to mean
the material universe, or the cosmos: "The
worlde is an apte frame of heauen and earthe,
and all other naturall thinges contained in
them."
The earth was often described as "the center
of the world".The term can also be used attributively,
to mean "global", or "relating to the whole
world", forming usages such as world community
or world canonical texts.By extension, a world
may refer to any planet or heavenly body,
especially when it is thought of as inhabited,
especially in the context of science fiction
or futurology.
World, in its original sense, when qualified,
can also refer to a particular domain of human
experience.
The world of work describes paid work and
the pursuit of a career, in all its social
aspects, to distinguish it from home life
and academic study.
The fashion world describes the environment
of the designers, fashion houses and consumers
that make up the fashion industry.
historically, the New World vs. the Old World,
referring to the parts of the world colonized
in the wake of the age of discovery.
Now mostly used in zoology and botany, as
in New World monkey.
== Philosophy ==
In philosophy, the term world has several
possible meanings.
In some contexts, it refers to everything
that makes up reality or the physical universe.
In others, it can mean have a specific ontological
sense (see world disclosure).
While clarifying the concept of world has
arguably always been among the basic tasks
of Western philosophy, this theme appears
to have been raised explicitly only at the
start of the twentieth century and has been
the subject of continuous debate.
The question of what the world is has by no
means been settled.
=== Parmenides ===
The traditional interpretation of Parmenides'
work is that he argued that the everyday perception
of reality of the physical world (as described
in doxa) is mistaken, and that the reality
of the world is 'One Being' (as described
in aletheia): an unchanging, ungenerated,
indestructible whole.
=== Plato ===
In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato distinguishes
between forms and ideas and imagines two distinct
worlds: the sensible world and the intelligible
world.
=== Hegel ===
In Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's philosophy
of history, the expression Weltgeschichte
ist Weltgericht (World History is a tribunal
that judges the World) is used to assert the
view that History is what judges men, their
actions and their opinions.
Science is born from the desire to transform
the World in relation to Man; its final end
is technical application.
=== Schopenhauer ===
The World as Will and Representation is the
central work of Arthur Schopenhauer.
Schopenhauer saw the human will as our one
window to the world behind the representation;
the Kantian thing-in-itself.
He believed, therefore, that we could gain
knowledge about the thing-in-itself, something
Kant said was impossible, since the rest of
the relationship between representation and
thing-in-itself could be understood by analogy
to the relationship between human will and
human body.
=== Wittgenstein ===
Two definitions that were both put forward
in the 1920s, however, suggest the range of
available opinion.
"The world is everything that is the case,"
wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein in his influential
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, first published
in 1921.
This definition would serve as the basis of
logical positivism, with its assumption that
there is exactly one world, consisting of
the totality of facts, regardless of the interpretations
that individual people may make of them.
=== Heidegger ===
Martin Heidegger, meanwhile, argued that "the
surrounding world is different for each of
us, and notwithstanding that we move about
in a common world".
The world, for Heidegger, was that into which
we are always already "thrown" and with which
we, as beings-in-the-world, must come to terms.
His conception of "world disclosure" was most
notably elaborated in his 1927 work Being
and Time.
=== Freud ===
In response, Sigmund Freud proposed that we
do not move about in a common world, but a
common thought process.
He believed that all the actions of a person
are motivated by one thing: lust.
This led to numerous theories about reactionary
consciousness.
=== Other ===
Some philosophers, often inspired by David
Lewis, argue that metaphysical concepts such
as possibility, probability, and necessity
are best analyzed by comparing the world to
a range of possible worlds; a view commonly
known as modal realism.
== Religion and mythology ==
Mythological cosmologies often depict the
world as centered on an axis mundi and delimited
by a boundary such as a world ocean, a world
serpent or similar.
In some religions, worldliness (also called
carnality) is that which relates to this world
as opposed to other worlds or realms.
=== Buddhism ===
In Buddhism, the world means society, as distinct
from the monastery.
It refers to the material world, and to worldly
gain such as wealth, reputation, jobs, and
war.
The spiritual world would be the path to enlightenment,
and changes would be sought in what we could
call the psychological realm.
=== Christianity ===
In Christianity, the term often connotes the
concept of the fallen and corrupt world order
of human society, in contrast to the World
to Come.
The world is frequently cited alongside the
flesh and the Devil as a source of temptation
that Christians should flee.
Monks speak of striving to be "in this world,
but not of this world"—as Jesus said—and
the term "worldhood" has been distinguished
from "monkhood", the former being the status
of merchants, princes, and others who deal
with "worldly" things.
This view is clearly expressed by king Alfred
the Great of England (d.
899) in his famous Preface to the Cura Pastoralis:
"Therefore I command you to do as I believe
you are willing to do, that you free yourself
from worldly affairs (Old English: woruldðinga)
as often as you can, so that wherever you
can establish that wisdom that God gave you,
you establish it.
Consider what punishments befell us in this
world when we neither loved wisdom at all
ourselves, nor transmitted it to other men;
we had the name alone that we were Christians,
and very few had the practices."
Although Hebrew and Greek words meaning "world"
are used in Scripture with the normal variety
of senses, many examples of its use in this
particular sense can be found in the teachings
of Jesus according to the Gospel of John,
e.g. 7:7, 8:23, 12:25, 14:17, 15:18-19, 17:6-25,
18:36.
For contrast, a relatively newer concept is
Catholic imagination.
Contemptus mundi is the name given to the
recognition that the world, in all its vanity,
is nothing more than a futile attempt to hide
from God by stifling our desire for the good
and the holy.
This view has been criticized as a "pastoral
of fear" by modern historian Jean Delumeau.During
the Second Vatican Council, there was a novel
attempt to develop a positive theological
view of the World, which is illustrated by
the pastoral optimism of the constitutions
Gaudium et spes, Lumen gentium, Unitatis redintegratio
and Dignitatis humanae.
==== Eastern Christianity ====
In Eastern Christian monasticism or asceticism,
the world of mankind is driven by passions.
Therefore, the passions of the World are simply
called "the world".
Each of these passions are a link to the world
of mankind or order of human society.
Each of these passions must be overcome in
order for a person to receive salvation (theosis).
The process of theosis is a personal relationship
with God.
This understanding is taught within the works
of ascetics like Evagrius Ponticus, and the
most seminal ascetic works read most widely
by Eastern Christians, the Philokalia and
the Ladder of Divine Ascent (the works of
Evagrius and John Climacus are also contained
within the Philokalia).
At the highest level of world transcendence
is hesychasm which culminates into the Vision
of God.
==== Orbis Catholicus ====
Orbis Catholicus is a Latin phrase meaning
Catholic world, per the expression Urbi et
Orbi, and refers to that area of Christendom
under papal supremacy.
It is somewhat similar to the phrases secular
world, Jewish world and Islamic world.
=== Islam ===
Dunya derives from the root word "dana" that
means to bring near.
In that sense, "dunya" is "what is brought
near".
=== Hinduism ===
Hinduism is an Indian religion and dharma,
or a way of life, widely practised in the
Indian subcontinent.
It includes a number of Indian religious traditions
with a loose sense of interconnection, as
different from Jainism and Buddhism, and (since
medieval and modern times) Islam and Christianity.
Hinduism has been called the oldest religion
in the world.
== See also ==
Globe
List of sovereign states
Ocean
Universe
World map
== Notes
