worlddependent

Worlddependent is an adjective used in philosophy, linguistics, and related fields to describe propositions, properties, or models whose truth conditions or behavior vary across possible worlds. A worlddependent claim is one whose validity depends on the actual facts of a given world; it would not be true in all possible worlds, nor false in all, but its truth is contingent on which world is under consideration. By contrast, world-independent (or necessary) claims hold across all worlds.

In modal logic and possible-world semantics, worlddependent predicates are interpreted relative to a designated world. Example: statements about concrete, contingent facts such as “It is raining here now” are typically worlddependent, because their truth varies with world and context. In semantics, indexicals like “here” and “now” create worlddependence since their referents shift with the world and context.

Applications include the philosophy of language, where worlddependence helps analyze contextual variation; linguistics, where it relates to context-sensitive expressions; and artificial intelligence, where certain policies or models may be designed to be worlddependent, adapting to current state information. The term is not universally standardized; some scholars prefer terms such as contingent, context-dependent, or world-relative propositions.

See also contingent truth, possible-world semantics, contextualism. While related concepts exist under different labels, worlddependent provides a concise way to describe dependencies that emerge only when a specific world or state of affairs is assumed.