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Oct 18, 2013 · Although ‘possible world’ has been part of the philosophical lexicon at least since Leibniz, the notion became firmly entrenched in contemporary philosophy with the development of possible world semantics for the languages of propositional and first-order modal logic.
A possible world is a complete and consistent way the world is or could have been. Possible worlds are widely used as a formal device in logic, philosophy, and linguistics in order to provide a semantics for intensional and modal logic.
Learn about the concept of a possible world, a total way the universe might have been, contrasted with the actual world. Explore how philosophers have formalized and used this idea in modal logic, ontology, and theodicy.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 1, 2024 · A possible world is a complete way things might be, alternative to the actual world. Learn about the philosophical and logical aspects of possible worlds, from Leibniz to modal logic and possibilism.
- Volker Gadenne
Nov 27, 2023 · The paper argues that possible worlds are propositions, but not abstract objects, and that higher-order quantification can explain how they represent possibilities. It responds to Lewis' objection that there is no way to explain how possible worlds-as-propositions succeed in representing possibilities.
- Deasy, Daniel
Sep 17, 2009 · This is usually represented by having each possible world, \ (w\), come with a system of “spheres”. If \ (W\) is the set of all worlds, let \ (\$\) be a function from worlds to sets of subsets of \ (W\), so that \ (\$w = \ {S_1, S_2 , \ldots \}\), with \ (w \in S_1 \subseteq S_2 \subseteq \ldots = W\).
Possible worlds – the very phrase can set the speculative imagination alight. Leibniz suggested that this world was the best of all possible worlds. The suggestion has enraged some, bewildered many, satisfied some and set others to pondering. What is this idea of possible worlds?
