Category: Infinite Regress Arguments
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A Homosexual Platonist Walks into a Gay Bar . . .
. . . looking depressed. 'Tender: Whatsamatta you? Platonist: A Third Man has come between between me and my partner!
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Infinite Regresses: Vicious and Benign
A reader asks: Are all infinite regresses (regressions?) vicious? Why the pejorative label? Of the many things I don't understand, this must be near the top of my list, and it's an ignorance that dates back to my undergrad Intro to Philosophy days. When I first read the Thomistic cosmological proofs, I found myself…
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On Infinitely Regressive Explanations of the Universe’s Existence
We’ve never chatted. I’m Tom Belt, a friend of Alan Rhoda. I believe you know Alan. Yes, in fact I was thinking about him just the other day in connection with his espousal of presentism. I’ve always appreciated being challenged when I drop by your blog. I’m wondering if you’d be willing to help me understand…
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Regress? What Regress? Truth-Making Revisited
Ed continues to repeat his regress argument against truth-makers, despite my hurling invective at it. I think I called it "breathtakingly rotten" or something equally offensive, all in good fun of course: I have argued (e.g. here and here that the notion of a ‘truthmaker’ leads to an infinite regress. If there is such a…
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An Infinite Regress Argument Against Truth-Makers? Round Two
The truth-maker of 'Tom sits' cannot be Tom. Otherwise it would also be the truth-maker of 'Tom stands' which is the logical contrary of the first sentence. And that won't do, as London Ed appreciates. But now what about 'Tom exists'? This too is a contingent sentence, and so it too needs a truth-maker. I…
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Frege’s Regress
Some of us of a realist persuasion hold that at least some truths have need of worldly correlates that 'make them true.' This notion that (some) truths need truthmakers is a variation on the ancient theme that truth implies a correspondence of what-is said or what-is-thought with what-is. You all know the passages in Aristotle where…
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An Infinite Regress Argument Against Truth-Makers?
Edward, the proprietor of Beyond Necessity, presents an infinite regress argument against truth-makers. Here it is: . . . I reject the idea of a truthmaker altogether. If there is such a truthmaker, let it be A, it comes into existence when Socrates sits down, and ceases to exist when he stands up. If it were…
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Another Example of a Vicious Infinite Regress: Philosophical Investigations, Sec. 239
I am collecting examples of infinite regress arguments in philosophy. See the category Infinite Regress Arguments. Here is one that is suggested by section 239 of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. When I hear the word 'red,' how do I know which color is being referred to? The following answer might be given: 'Red' refers to the…
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Original and Derived Intentionality, Circles, and Regresses
1. Original/Derived Intentionality. All will agree that there is some sort of distinction to be made here. A map is not about a chunk of terrain just in virtue of the map's physical and geometrical properties. Consider the contour lines on a topographical map. The closer together, the steeper the terrain. But that closer together…
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Infinite Regresses: Vicious, Benign, Virtuous?
I haven't yet said anything particularly illuminating about the criteria of viciousness, the criteria that would allow us to sort infinite regresses into the vicious and the non-vicious. I should address the problem of criteria. But in this installment I want to suggest that we may need to make a tripartite distinction among vicious, benign, and virtuous…
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Vicious and Benign Regresses Again
What is the difference between a vicious and a benign infinite regress? We ought to look at a number of examples. Here is one. An entailment of a proposition p is any proposition that is a logical consequence of p. Now consider 1. Every proposition has entailments. 2. To know a proposition one must know…
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Infinite Regresses: Vicious and Benign
The peripatetic (not Peripatetic) Kevin Kim once asked me: Are all infinite regresses (regressions?) vicious? Why the pejorative label? Of the many things I don’t understand, this must be near the top of my list, and it’s an ignorance that dates back to my undergrad Intro to Philosophy days. When I first read the Thomistic…