Editing World (section)

=== 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.<ref name="Sandkühler"/><ref name=" Mittelstraß"/><ref name="Fraassen"/><ref name="Duco"/> 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.<ref name="Sandkühler"/><ref name="Declos">{{cite journal |last1=Declos |first1=Alexandre |title=Goodman's Many Worlds |journal=Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy |date=2019 |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.15173/jhap.v7i6.3827 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/DECGMW|doi-access=free }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Sandkühler"/> This might be even understood in the sense that, strictly speaking, there are no worlds at all.<ref name="Declos"/> 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<ref name="Wondrium Daily 2021">{{cite web | title=The Old World-New World Debate and the Columbian Exchange | website=Wondrium Daily | date=2021-01-31 | url=https://www.wondriumdaily.com/the-old-world-new-world-debate-and-the-columbian-exchange/ | access-date=2022-04-10}}</ref> expression "the [[New World]]" it refers to the landmass of North and South America.<ref name="Fraassen"/>