infinite regress
Turtles all down
Infinite regress is a sequence of reasoning or causation that extends backward without end, each step requiring a prior step to explain or justify it.
If every event needs a cause, and that cause needs its own cause, you have an infinite regress.
Philosophers often treat infinite regress as a problem to be avoided, since it leaves fundamental questions forever unanswered.
The argument leads to an infinite regress of creators creating creators.
State of being round
- self-referencePointing to oneself
- vicious circleSelf-reinforcing negative loop
- turtles all the way downUnending chain of causes
- recursionProcess invoking itself
loop · bootstrapping · chicken-and-egg · begging the question · unsolvability · Zeno · homunculus · ouroboros
Study of existence's nature
- beingExisting as something
- substancePhysical material with mass
- turtlesShell-backed reptiles
- foundationUnderlying support structure
hierarchy · levels · reality · existence · descent · ultimate · fundamental · bedrock
Endlessly, pointlessly laborious
- unendingLacking any terminus
- exhaustingDepleting one's stamina
- pointlessLacking any purpose
- fruitlessProducing no useful outcome
endless · hopeless · cyclical · never-ending · inescapable · going nowhere · spinning wheels · dead-end
Initial triggering factor
- unmoved moverSelf-sufficient first cause
- chainLinked segments forming length
- antecedentSomething that precedes
- consequentFollowing as an effect
dependency · origin · prime mover · causal chain · contingency · necessity · Aquinas · Aristotle
Reason proving rightness
- foundationalismKnowledge rests on basics
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
- knowledgeUnderstood facts and skills
- beliefTrust held as true
warrant · first principles · axiom · premise · grounding · epistemic · criterion · truth
circularity
State of being round
- self-referencePointing to oneself
- vicious circleSelf-reinforcing negative loop
- turtles all the way downUnending chain of causes
recursion · loop · bootstrapping · chicken-and-egg · begging the question · unsolvability · Zeno · homunculus · ouroboros · Droste effect
ontology
Study of existence's nature
foundation · hierarchy · levels · reality · existence · descent · ultimate · fundamental · bedrock · substrate
Sisyphean
Endlessly, pointlessly laborious
- unendingLacking any terminus
- exhaustingDepleting one's stamina
- pointlessLacking any purpose
fruitless · endless · hopeless · cyclical · never-ending · inescapable · going nowhere · spinning wheels · dead-end · frustrating
first cause
Initial triggering factor
- unmoved moverSelf-sufficient first cause
- chainLinked segments forming length
- antecedentSomething that precedes
consequent · dependency · origin · prime mover · causal chain · contingency · necessity · Aquinas · Aristotle · sufficient reason
justification
Reason proving rightness
- foundationalismKnowledge rests on basics
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
- knowledgeUnderstood facts and skills
belief · warrant · first principles · axiom · premise · grounding · epistemic · criterion · truth · certainty
- catch-22svicious cycle, deadlock, poverty trap, debt spiral
- fallaciesstraw man, red herring, circular reasoning, ad hominem, fallacy
- paradoxescatch-22, Zeno's paradox, Zeno's paradoxes, causal loop, bootstrap paradox
- Self-referenceself-reference, self-referential, recursion, recursive, meta
- chicken and egg questionscircular reasoning, bootstrap paradox, self-reference, first mover
- literary paradoxesoxymoron, contradiction, catch-22, antinomy, self-reference
infinite regressfirst cause
Initial triggering factor
prime mover · foundationalism · unmoved mover · terminus · stopping point
definite, infinity, infinite, regress, finite, undefined, regression, infinitely, infinitesimal