LessonsThe Originator of the World: Necessary Existence, Infinite Regress and the Correspondence ProofQuiz

أن العالم اسم لجميع ما يصلح علما على وجود مبدأ له
“The world” names everything that may serve as a sign of a principle from which it derives.

Here ʿalam carries the sense of an indication or sign. The discussion is not limited to the earth, heavens, or one material body, but concerns dependent reality considered as a whole.

This wording shifts the inquiry beyond a cause for one individual thing to the common ultimate ground of what points to dependence. Calling the world a sign indicates the direction of the argument; the philosophical case still requires its premises to be examined.

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“World” as the totality that points beyond itself

The Originator of the World: Necessary Existence, Infinite Regress and the Correspondence Proof

أن العالم اسم لجميع ما يصلح علما على وجود مبدأ له
“The world” names everything that may serve as a sign of a principle from which it derives.

Here ʿalam carries the sense of an indication or sign. The discussion is not limited to the earth, heavens, or one material body, but concerns dependent reality considered as a whole.

This wording shifts the inquiry beyond a cause for one individual thing to the common ultimate ground of what points to dependence. Calling the world a sign indicates the direction of the argument; the philosophical case still requires its premises to be examined.