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possible world |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.06 sec. |
possible worldConception of a total way the universe might have been. It is often contrasted with the way things actually are. In his Theodicy (1710), G.W. Leibniz used the concept of a possible world in his proposed solution to the theological problem of the existence of evil, arguing that an all-perfect God would actualize the best of all possible worlds; this idea was later satirized by Voltaire in his comic novel Candide (1759). Philosophers have since constructed several different formalizations of the concept of a possible world. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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inhabited one may reply: You might be perfectly in the right, if you could only show that the earth is the best possible world, in spite of what Voltaire has said. Giuseppe ran to the gate and fled back to the possible world. |
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