Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The term possible world is retained even by those who attach no metaphysical significance to them. In the field of database theory, possible worlds are also a notion used in the setting of uncertain databases and probabilistic databases, which serve as a succinct representation of a large number of possible worlds. [2]
Possible worlds, according to Leibniz's theory, are combinations of beings which are possible together, that is, compossible. [ 6 ] A being is possible , for Leibniz, when it is logically possible , i.e., when its definition involves no contradiction. [ 7 ]
The term goes back to Leibniz's theory of possible worlds, [2] used to analyse necessity, possibility, and similar modal notions.In short, the actual world is regarded as merely one among an infinite set of logically possible worlds, some "nearer" to the actual world and some more remote.
According to the MWI, each of these possible observations corresponds to a different "world" within the Universal wavefunction, with each world as real as ours. Suppose a six-sided dice is thrown and that the result of the throw corresponds to observable quantum mechanics. All six possible ways the dice can fall correspond to six different worlds.
Kripke's possible worlds theory has been used by narratologists (beginning with Pavel and Dolezel) to understand "reader's manipulation of alternative plot developments, or the characters' planned or fantasized alternative action series." This application has become especially useful in the analysis of hyperfiction. [23]
If possible worlds help with counterfactuals, they will help with causation. Closeness of worlds can help spell out what it means for a false theory of nature to be close to the truth. Idealizations such as the ideally rational belief system are "among the theoretical benefits to be found in the paradise of possibilia."
This page was last edited on 6 November 2023, at 23:03 (UTC).; Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply.
Along with Saul Kripke, David Lewis, and Alvin Plantinga, Stalnaker has been one of the most influential theorists exploring philosophical aspects of possible world semantics. According to his view of possible worlds, they are ways this world could have been, which in turn are maximal properties that this world could have had.