For other uses, see 

World (disambiguation).

The Blue Marble, a photograph of the planet Earth made on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo
17 spacecraft.

In 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 (-uld), weorld, worold (-uld, -eld), a
compound of wer "man" and eld "age," which thus means roughly "Age of Man."[2] 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).[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's 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. 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".[63] It is mainly associated with the temporal, sensory world and earthly concerns,
i.e. with this world in contrast to the spiritual world.[64] Some religious teachings warn of our
tendency to seek happiness in this world and advise a more ascetic lifestyle concerned with the
afterlife.[65] But other strands in Islam recommend a balanced approach. [64]

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).[66][67]

Hinduism
Hinduism constitutes a wide family of religious-philosophical views. [68] 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.
[69]
 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. [70] Samkhya understands this
world as a world of matter governed by the law of cause and effect. [69] The term "matter" is
understood in a very wide sense in this tradition including both physical and mental aspects.
[71]
 This is reflected in the doctrine of tattvas, according to which prakriti is made up of 23 different
principles or elements of reality.[71] These principles include both physical elements, like water or
earth, and mental aspects, like intelligence or sense-impressions. [70] 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. [69]
A very different conception of the world is present in Advaita Vedanta, the monist school among
the Vedanta schools.[68] Unlike the realist position defended in Samkhya philosophy, Advaita
Vedanta sees the world of multiplicity as an illusion, referred to as Maya.[68] This illusion also
includes our impression of existing as separate experiencing selfs called Jivas.[72] Instead,
Advaita Vedanta teaches that on the most fundamental level of reality, referred to as Brahman,
there exists no plurality or difference. [72] All there is is one all-encompassing self: Atman.
[68]
 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. [72]

Related terms and problems

Worldviews
Main article: Worldview
A worldview is a comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it.[73] As a
representation, it is a subjective perspective of the world and thereby different from the world it
represents.[74] 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".[74] 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. [73] 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. [75] On this interpretation, the term is
closely associated to the worldviews given by different religions. [75] 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.[76][77] 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 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. [78][79] 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. [78] They can be
categorized concerning their contents. Types often found include creation from nothing, from
chaos or from a cosmic egg.[78]

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.[80][81] 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.
[82]
 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. [82]

World history
Main article: World history
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. [83] Instead, it concentrates on wider regions and
zones of interaction, often interested in how people, goods and ideas move from one region to
another.[84] 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.
[83]
 Contemporary world history is dominated by three main research paradigms determining the
periodization into different epochs.[85] 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. [86][87]
  Another paradigm, focusing on culture and religion instead, is based on Karl Jaspers' theories
[85]

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.[85] 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.[85] 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.[85]

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. [88]
[89]
 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. [90] 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.[90] These theories are sometimes divided into realism, liberalism and
constructivism.[91] 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.[90][92][93] 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. [90][94] 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.[90][95]