Infinite regress
Overview
An infinite regress is a sequence in which each member depends on the one before it, with no first member. In epistemology it is the chain of justifications in which every reason requires a further reason (the first horn of the Münchhausen trilemma). In metaphysics it is the chain of causes, movers, or explanations with no first cause, mover, or explanation. Whether an infinite regress is vicious (a sign that something has gone wrong) or benign (merely infinite) is the question that matters, and it is usually assumed rather than argued.
Notes
- The First Cause Argument, Prime Mover Argument, and Kalam Cosmological Argument all rest on the premise that an infinite regress of causes is impossible. I do not think this is shown. There is no logical contradiction in an infinite past, any more than in the infinite sequence of negative integers, and the intuition that it is impossible is an intuition (Hilbert's Hotel, Personal Incredulity). My own Owens Tryptic of Ignorance is the observation that I understand a finite past no better.
- The theist's solution, a first cause that is itself uncaused, does not avoid the regress so much as declare it stopped by fiat (Special Pleading). If something can be uncaused, the universe is the simpler candidate.
- In epistemology, the regress is stopped, for me, by declared presuppositions (Foundationalism, My Presuppositions).