The world is, in a philosophical sense, everything that is seen and perceived by human intellect and human senses, even though some branches of philosophy may refer to different "worlds", making a reference to the different realms of philosophy (such as the mathematical world, the intelligible world, the world of ideas and concepts and so on) which are all intertwined to create what we call "reality" or the layman's definition of the world. Although the very concept of world is debatable for some adherents to philosophical worldviews such as followers of solipsism, the vast majority of people agree that we are experiencing what we believe to be a coordinate system of experiences.

This concept was first introduced by Hegel and then it was subsequently modified by latter philosophers such as Immanuel Kant or Martin Heidegger, who introduced potentially troublesome concepts such as category or the "ding an sich", which shattered the generally accepted and set version of a static and intelligible world that pervaded the philosopical insight of reality before.

It is worth mentioning that the philosophical debate on the definition of the world is far from being settled, and that no general agreement has been reached as to what would be an acceptable and coherent definition of "world". This debate involves a number of philosophical branches such as Epistemology.

The world in a philosophical sense might be, to some, a construct of the human interpretations. The world as seen by Heidegger is a place into which human beings are thrown without any specific reason or purpose, and it is constituted by a wide array of objects, such as the physical world that humans didn't create, and objects such as the culture or languages that humans created and that humans can also modify.

To what extent does a person's philosophical perception alter the world itelf remains unbeknownst. Some might claim that the world is the person's particular interpretation of the world, and some might claim that there is an unchangeable world, regardless of oneself's interpretation of it.

See also

• Metaphysics
• Dasein
• Existence
• Sein und Zeit