n its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of 

reality or to
everything that is.[1] The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields.
Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the
world as one simple object while others analyze the world as a complex made up of many parts.
In scientific cosmology the world or universe is commonly defined as "[t]he totality of all space and
time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality, on the other hand, talk of possible
worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from
the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the
biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is commonly
contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. Theology conceptualizes the
world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, as identical to God or as the two being
interdependent. In religions, there is often a tendency to downgrade the material or sensory world in
favor of a spiritual world to be sought through religious practice. A comprehensive representation of
the world and our place in it, as is commonly found in religions, is known as
a worldview. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world
while eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world.
In various contexts, the term "world" takes a more restricted meaning associated, for example, with
the Earth and all life on it, with humanity as a whole or with an international or intercontinental scope.
In this sense, world history refers to the history of humanity as a whole or world politics is the
discipline of political science studying issues that transcend nations and continents. Other examples
include terms such as "world religion", "world language", "world government", "world war", "world
population", "world economy" or "world championship".

Contents

 1Etymology

 2Conceptions

o 2.1Monism and pluralism

o 2.2Scientific cosmology

o 2.3Theories of modality

o 2.4Phenomenology

o 2.5Philosophy of mind

o 2.6Theology

 3History of philosophy

o 3.1Parmenides

o 3.2Plato

o 3.3Hegel

o 3.4Schopenhauer

o 3.5Wittgenstein

o 3.6Heidegger
 o 3.7Eugen Fink

o 3.8Goodman

 4Religion

o 4.1Buddhism

o 4.2Christianity

 4.2.1Eastern Christianity

 4.2.2Orbis Catholicus

o 4.3Islam

o 4.4Mandaeism

o 4.5Hinduism

 5Related terms and problems

o 5.1Worldviews

o 5.2Paradox of many worlds

o 5.3Cosmogony

o 5.4Eschatology

o 5.5World history

o 5.6World politics

 6See also

 7References

 8External links

Etymology
The English word world comes from the Old English weorold. The Old English is a reflex of
the Common Germanic *weraldiz, a compound of weraz 'man' and aldiz 'age', thus literally meaning
roughly 'age of man';[2] this word also led to Old Frisian warld, Old Saxon werold, Old
Dutch werolt, Old High German weralt, and Old Norse verǫld.[3]
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.[4]

Conceptions
Different fields often work with quite different conceptions of the essential features associated with
the term "world".[5][6] Some conceptions see the world as unique: there can be no more than one
world. Others talk of a "plurality of worlds".[4] Some see worlds as complex things composed of many
substances as their parts while others hold that worlds are simple in the sense that there is only one
substance: the world as a whole.[7] Some characterize worlds in terms of objective spacetime while
others define them relative to the horizon present in each experience. These different
characterizations are not always exclusive: it may be possible to combine some without leading to a
contradiction. Most of them agree that worlds are unified totalities. [5][6]

Monism and pluralism

Monism is a thesis about oneness: that only one thing exists in a certain sense. The denial of
monism is pluralism, the thesis that, in a certain sense, more than one thing exists.[7] There are many
forms of monism and pluralism, but in relation to the world as a whole, two are of special interest:
existence monism/pluralism and priority monism/pluralism. Existence monism states that the world is
the only concrete object there is.[7][8][9] This means that all the concrete "objects" we encounter in our
daily lives, including apples, cars and ourselves, are not truly objects in a strict sense. Instead, they
are just dependent aspects of the world-object.[7] Such a world-object is simple in the sense that it
does not have any genuine parts. For this reason, it has also been referred to as "blobject" since it
lacks an internal structure just like a blob.[10] Priority monism allows that there are other concrete
objects besides the world.[7] But it holds that these objects do not have the most fundamental form of
existence, that they somehow depend on the existence of the world. [9][11] The corresponding forms of
pluralism, on the other hand, state that the world is complex in the sense that it is made up of
concrete, independent objects.[7]

Scientific cosmology
Scientific cosmology can be defined as the science of the universe as a whole. In it, the terms
"universe" and "cosmos" are usually used as synonyms for the term "world". [12] One common
definition of the world/universe found in this field is as "[t]he totality of all space and time; all that is,
has been, and will be".[13][5][6] Some definitions emphasize that there are two other aspects to the
universe besides spacetime: forms of energy or matter, like stars and particles, and laws of nature.
[14]
 Different world-conceptions in this field differ both concerning their notion of spacetime and of the
contents of spacetime. The theory of relativity plays a central role in modern cosmology and its
conception of space and time. An important difference from its predecessors is that it conceives
space and time not as distinct dimensions but as a single four-dimensional manifold
called spacetime.[15] This can be seen in special relativity in relation to the Minkowski metric, which
includes both spatial and temporal components in its definition of distance. [16] General relativity goes
one step further by integrating the concept of mass into the concept of spacetime as its curvature.
[16]
 Quantum cosmology, on the other hand, uses a classical notion of spacetime and conceives the
whole world as one big wave function expressing the probability of finding particles in a given
location.[17]

Theories of modality
The world-concept plays an important role in many modern theories of modality, usually in the form
of possible worlds.[18] A possible world is a complete and consistent way how things could have been.
[19]
 The actual world is a possible world since the way things are is a way things could have been. But
there are many other ways things could have been besides how they actually are. For example,
Hillary Clinton did not win the 2016 US election, but she could have won them. So there is a possible
world in which she did. There is a vast number of possible worlds, one corresponding to each such
difference, no matter how small or big, as long as no outright contradictions are introduced this way.
[19]

Possible worlds are often conceived as abstract objects, for example, in terms of non-
obtaining states of affairs or as maximally consistent sets of propositions.[20][21] On such a view, they
can even be seen as belonging to the actual world. [22] Another way to conceive possible worlds,
made famous by David Lewis, is as concrete entities.[4] On this conception, there is no important
difference between the actual world and possible worlds: both are conceived as concrete, inclusive
and spatiotemporally connected. [19] The only difference is that the actual world is the world we live in,
while other possible worlds are not inhabited by us but by our counterparts.[23] Everything within a
world is spatiotemporally connected to everything else but the different worlds do not share a
common spacetime: They are spatiotemporally isolated from each other. [19] This is what makes
them separate worlds.[23]
It has been suggested that, besides possible worlds, there are also impossible worlds. Possible
worlds are ways things could have been, so impossible worlds are ways things could not have been.
[24][25]
 Such worlds involve a contradiction, like a world in which Hillary Clinton both won and lost the
2016 US election. Both possible and impossible worlds have in common the idea that they are
totalities of their constituents.[24][26]

Phenomenology
Within phenomenology, worlds are defined in terms of horizons of experiences.[5][6] When we perceive
an object, like a house, we do not just experience this object at the center of our attention but also
various other objects surrounding it, given in the periphery. [27] The term "horizon" refers to these co-
given objects, which are usually experienced only in a vague, indeterminate manner. [28][29] The
perception of a house involves various horizons, corresponding to the neighborhood, the city, the
country, the Earth, etc. In this context, the world is the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all
horizons".[27][5][6] It is common among phenomenologists to understand the world not just as a
spatiotemporal collection of objects but as additionally incorporating various other relations between
these objects. These relations include, for example, indication-relations that help us anticipate one
object given the appearances of another object and means-end-relations or functional involvements
relevant for practical concerns.[27]

Philosophy of mind
In philosophy of mind, the term "world" is commonly used in contrast to the term "mind" as that
which is represented by the mind. This is sometimes expressed by stating that there is a gap
between mind and world and that this gap needs to be overcome for representation to be successful.
[30][31][32]
 One of the central problems in philosophy of mind is to explain how the mind is able to bridge
this gap and to enter into genuine mind-world-relations, for example, in the form of perception,
knowledge or action.[33][34] This is necessary for the world to be able to rationally constrain the activity
of the mind.[30][35] According to a realist position, the world is something distinct and independent from
the mind.[36] Idealists, on the other hand, conceive of the world as partially or fully determined by the
mind.[36][37] Immanuel Kant's transcendental idealism, for example, posits that the spatiotemporal
structure of the world is imposed by the mind on reality but lacks independent existence otherwise.
[38]
 A more radical idealist conception of the world can be found in Berkeley's subjective idealism,
which holds that the world as a whole, including all everyday objects like tables, cats, trees and
ourselves, "consists of nothing but minds and ideas". [39]

Theology
Different theological positions hold different conceptions of the world based on its relation to
God. Classical theism states that God is wholly distinct from the world. But the world depends for its
existence on God, both because God created the world and because He maintains or conserves it. [40]
[41][42]
 This is sometimes understood in analogy to how humans create and conserve ideas in their
imagination, with the difference being that the divine mind is vastly more powerful. [40] On such a view,
God has absolute, ultimate reality in contrast to the lower ontological status ascribed to the world.
[42]
 God's involvement in the world is often understood along the lines of a personal, benevolent God
who looks after and guides His creation.[41] Deists agree with theists that God created the world but
deny any subsequent, personal involvement in it.[43] Pantheists, on the other hand, reject the
separation between God and world. Instead, they claim that the two are identical. This means that
there is nothing to the world that does not belong to God and that there is nothing to God beyond
what is found in the world.[42][44] Panentheism constitutes a middle ground
between theism and pantheism. Against theism, It holds that God and the world are interrelated and
depend on each other. Against pantheism, it holds that there is no outright identity between the two.
[42][45]
 Atheists, on the other hand, deny the existence of God and thereby of conceptions of the world
based on its relation to God.

History of 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 [46] 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
Plato is well known for his theory of forms, which posits the existence of two different worlds: the
sensible world and the intelligible world. The sensible world is the world we live in, filled with
changing physical things we can see, touch and interact with. The intelligible world, on the other
hand, is the world of invisible, eternal, changeless forms like goodness, beauty, unity and sameness.
[47][48][49]
 Plato ascribes a lower ontological status to the sensible world, which only imitates the world of
forms. This is due to the fact that physical things exist only to the extent that they participate in the
forms that characterize them, while the forms themselves have an independent manner of existence.
[47][48][49]
 In this sense, the sensible world is a mere replication of the perfect exemplars found in the
world of forms: it never lives up to the original. In the allegory of the cave, Plato compares the
physical things we are familiar with to mere shadows of the real things. But not knowing the
difference, the prisoners in the cave mistake the shadows for the real things. [50]

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.[51] 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". [52] 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.

Eugen Fink
"World" is one of the key terms in Eugen Fink's philosophy.[53] He thinks that there is a misguided
tendency in western philosophy to understand the world as one enormously big thing containing all
the small everyday things we are familiar with.[54] He sees this view as a form of forgetfulness of the
world and tries to oppose it by what he calls the "cosmological difference": the difference between
the world and the inner-worldly things it contains. [54] On his view, the world is the totality of the inner-
worldly things that transcends them.[55] It is itself groundless but it provides a ground for things. It
therefore cannot be identified with a mere container. Instead, the world gives appearance to inner-
worldly things, it provides them with a place, a beginning and an end. [54] One difficulty in investigating
the world is that we never encounter it since it is not just one more thing that appears to us. This is
why Fink uses the notion of play or playing to elucidate the nature of the world. [54][55] He sees play as a
symbol of the world that is both part of it and that represents it. [56] Play usually comes with a form of
imaginary play-world involving various things relevant to the play. But just like the play is more than
the imaginary realities appearing in it so the world is more than the actual things appearing in it. [54][56]

Goodman
The concept of worlds plays a central role in Nelson Goodman's late philosophy.[57] He argues that
we need to posit different worlds in order to account for the fact that there are different incompatible
truths found in reality.[58] Two truths are incompatible if they ascribe incompatible properties to the
same thing.[57] This happens, for example, when we assert both that the earth moves and that the
earth is at rest. These incompatible truths correspond to two different ways of describing the
world: heliocentrism and geocentrism.[58] Goodman terms such descriptions "world versions". He
holds a correspondence theory of truth: a world version is true if it corresponds to a world.
Incompatible true world versions correspond to different worlds. [58] It is common for theories of
modality to posit the existence of a plurality of possible worlds. But Goodman's theory is different
since it posits a plurality not of possible but of actual worlds.[57][5] Such a position is in danger of
involving a contradiction: there cannot be a plurality of actual worlds if worlds are defined as
maximally inclusive wholes.[57][5] This danger may be avoided by interpreting Goodman's world-
concept not as maximally inclusive wholes in the absolute sense but in relation to its corresponding
world-version: a world contains all and only the entities that its world-version describes. [57][5]

Religion

Wikiquote has quotations related to Worldliness.

Yggdrasil, a modern attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and
the underworld.

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)[59][60] 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. In
contrast, a relatively newer concept is Catholic imagination.
Contemptus mundi is the name given to the belief 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. [61] This view has
been criticised as a "pastoral of fear" by modern historian Jean Delumeau.[62]
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.[63] It is somewhat similar to the phrases
secular world, Jewish world and Islamic world.

Islam
Main article: Dunya

In Islam, the term "dunya" is used for the world. Its meaning is derived from the root word "dana", a
term for "near".[64] It is mainly associated with the temporal, sensory world and earthly concerns, i.e.
with this world in contrast to the spiritual world.[65] Some religious teachings warn of our tendency to
seek happiness in this world and advise a more ascetic lifestyle concerned with the afterlife. [66] But
other strands in Islam recommend a balanced approach. [65]

Mandaeism
In Mandaean cosmology, the world or earthly realm is known as Tibil. It is separated from the World
of Light (alma d-nhūra) above and the World of Darkness (alma d-hšuka) below by ayar (aether).[67][68]
Hinduism
Hinduism constitutes a wide family of religious-philosophical views.[69] These views present different
perspectives on the nature and role of the world. Samkhya philosophy, for example, is a
metaphysical dualism that understands reality as comprising two parts: purusha and prakriti.[70] The
term "purusha" stands for the individual conscious self that each of us possesses. Prakriti, on the
other hand, is the one world inhabited by all these selves.[71] Samkhya understands this world as a
world of matter governed by the law of cause and effect. [70] The term "matter" is understood in a very
wide sense in this tradition including both physical and mental aspects. [72] This is reflected in the
doctrine of tattvas, according to which prakriti is made up of 23 different principles or elements of
reality.[72] These principles include both physical elements, like water or earth, and mental aspects,
like intelligence or sense-impressions. [71] The relation between purusha and prakriti is usually
conceived as one of mere observation: purusha is the conscious self aware of the world of prakriti
but does not causally interact with it.[70]
A very different conception of the world is present in Advaita Vedanta, the monist school among
the Vedanta schools.[69] Unlike the realist position defended in Samkhya philosophy, Advaita Vedanta
sees the world of multiplicity as an illusion, referred to as Maya.[69] This illusion also includes our
impression of existing as separate experiencing selfs called Jivas.[73] Instead, Advaita Vedanta
teaches that on the most fundamental level of reality, referred to as Brahman, there exists no
plurality or difference.[73] All there is is one all-encompassing self: Atman.[69] Ignorance is seen as the
source of this illusion, which results in bondage to the world of mere appearances. But liberation is
possible in the course of overcoming this illusion by acquiring the knowledge of Brahman, according
to Advaita Vedanta.[73]

Related terms and problems

Worldviews
Main article: Worldview

A worldview is a comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it. [74] As a
representation, it is a subjective perspective of the world and thereby different from the world it
represents.[75] All higher animals need to represent their environment in some way in order to
navigate it. But it has been argued that only humans possess a representation encompassing
enough to merit the term "worldview". [75] Philosophers of worldviews commonly hold that the
understanding of any object depends on a worldview constituting the background on which this
understanding can take place. This may affect not just our intellectual understanding of the object in
question but the experience of it in general.[74] It is therefore impossible to assess one's worldview
from a neutral perspective since this assessment already presupposes the worldview as its
background. Some hold that each worldview is based on a single hypothesis that promises to solve
all the problems of our existence we may encounter.[76] On this interpretation, the term is closely
associated to the worldviews given by different religions. [76] Worldviews offer orientation not just in
theoretical matters but also in practical matters. For this reason, they usually include answers to the
question of the meaning of life and other evaluative components about what matters and how we
should act.[77][78] A worldview can be unique to one individual but worldviews are usually shared by
many people within a certain culture or religion.

Paradox of many worlds

The idea that there exist many different worlds is found in various fields. For example, Theories of
modality talk about a plurality of possible worlds and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum
mechanics carries this reference even in its name. Talk of different worlds is also common in
everyday language, for example, with reference to the world of music, the world of business, the
world of football, the world of experience or the Asian world. But at the same time, worlds are usually
defined as all-inclusive totalities.[5][6][15][14] This seems to contradict the very idea of a plurality of worlds
since if a world is total and all-inclusive then it cannot have anything outside itself. Understood this
way, a world can neither have other worlds besides itself or be part of something bigger. [5][57] One way
to resolve this paradox while holding onto the notion of a plurality of worlds is to restrict the sense in
which worlds are totalities. On this view, worlds are not totalities in an absolute sense. [5] This might
be even understood in the sense that, strictly speaking, there are no worlds at all. [57] Another
approach understands worlds in a schematic sense: as context-dependent expressions that stand
for the current domain of discourse. So in the expression "Around the World in Eighty Days", the
term "world" refers to the earth while in the colonial [79] expression "the New World" it refers to the
landmass of North and South America. [15]

Cosmogony
Main article: Cosmogony

Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world. This includes both scientific
cosmogony and creation myths found in various religions. [80][81] The dominant theory in scientific
cosmogony is the Big Bang theory, according to which both space, time and matter have their origin
in one initial singularity occurring about 13.8 billion years ago. This singularity was followed by an
expansion that allowed the universe to sufficiently cool down for the formation of subatomic particles
and later atoms. These initial elements formed giant clouds, which would then coalesce into stars
and galaxies.[16] Non-scientific creation myths are found in many cultures and are often enacted in
rituals expressing their symbolic meaning.[80] They can be categorized concerning their contents.
Types often found include creation from nothing, from chaos or from a cosmic egg. [80]

Eschatology
Main article: Eschatology

Eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world. It is
traditionally associated with religion, specifically with the Abrahamic religions.[82][83] In this form, it may
include teachings both of the end of each individual human life and of the end of the world as a
whole. But it has been applied to other fields as well, for example, in the form of physical
Eschatology, which includes scientifically based speculations about the far future of the universe.
[84]
 According to some models, there will be a Big Crunch in which the whole universe collapses back
into a singularity, possibly resulting in a second Big Bang afterward. But current astronomical
evidence seems to suggest that our universe will continue to expand indefinitely. [84]

World history
Main article: World history (field)

World history studies the world from a historical perspective. Unlike other approaches to history, it
employs a global viewpoint. It deals less with individual nations and civilizations, which it usually
approaches at a high level of abstraction. [85] Instead, it concentrates on wider regions and zones of
interaction, often interested in how people, goods and ideas move from one region to another. [86] It
includes comparisons of different societies and civilizations as well as considering wide-ranging
developments with a long-term global impact like the process of industrialization. [85] Contemporary
world history is dominated by three main research paradigms determining the periodization into
different epochs.[87] One is based on productive relations between humans and nature. The two most
important changes in history in this respect were the introduction of agriculture and husbandry
concerning the production of food, which started around 10,000 to 8,000 BCE and is sometimes
termed the Neolithic revolution, and the industrial revolution, which started around 1760 CE and
involved the transition from manual to industrial manufacturing. [88][89][87] Another paradigm, focusing on
culture and religion instead, is based on Karl Jaspers' theories about the axial age, a time in which
various new forms of religious and philosophical thoughts appeared in several separate parts of the
world around the time between 800 and 200 BCE.[87] A third periodization is based on the relations
between civilizations and societies. According to this paradigm, history can be divided into three
periods in relation to the dominant region in the world: Middle Eastern dominance before 500 BCE,
Eurasian cultural balance until 1500 CE and Western dominance since 1500 CE.[87] Big
history employs an even wider framework than world history by putting human history into the
context of the history of the universe as a whole. It starts with the Big Bang and traces the formation
of galaxies, the solar system, the earth, its geological eras, the evolution of life and humans until the
present day.[87]

World politics
World politics, also referred to as global politics or international relations, is the discipline of political
science studying issues of interest to the world that transcend nations and continents. [90][91] It aims to
explain complex patterns found in the social world that are often related to the pursuit of power,
order and justice, usually in the context of globalization. It focuses not just on the relations between
nation-states but also considers other transnational actors, like multinational corporations, terrorist
groups, or non-governmental organizations. [92] For example, it tries to explain events like 9/11,
the 2003 war in Iraq or the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
Various theories have been proposed in order to deal with the complexity involved in formulating
such explanations.[92] These theories are sometimes divided into realism, liberalism and
constructivism.[93] Realists see nation-states as the main actors in world politics. They constitute an
anarchical international system without any overarching power to control their behavior. They are
seen as sovereign agents that, determined by human nature, act according to their national self-
interest. Military force may play an important role in the ensuing struggle for power between states,
but diplomacy and cooperation are also key mechanisms for nations to achieve their goals. [92][94]
[95]
 Liberalists acknowledge the importance of states but they also emphasize the role of transnational
actors, like the United Nations or the World Trade Organization. They see humans as perfectible and
stress the role of democracy in this process. The emergent order in world politics, on this
perspective, is more complex than a mere balance of power since more different agents and
interests are involved in its production.[92][96] Constructivism ascribes more importance to the agency
of individual humans than realism and liberalism. It understands the social world as a construction of
the people living in it. This leads to an emphasis on the possibility of change. If the international
system is an anarchy of nation-states, as the realists hold, then this is only so because we made it
this way and may well change since this is not prefigured by human nature, according to the
constructivists.[92][97]

See also