Justin Smith: What Is a World?

Lecture by Justin Smith (Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7), organized by the Department of the History of Philosophy

In this talk I consider the ambiguities inherent in the early modern concept of 'world', and I argue that what exactly this term was taken to mean had significant and generally overlooked philosophical implications for philosophers active in the 17th century. Is a world a far-away region? Or is it somehow a causally self-contained reality that cannot be accessed from outside? Or is it indeed not another reality at all, but rather...(continue reading...)