What does the terms “turtles all the way down” and “infinite regress” mean?
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The phrase “turtles all the way down” comes from the ancient myth that the world is carried on the back of a turtle. This may raise the question of what *the turtle* is supported by. The phrase suggests that the turtle itself is on another turtle, which is on another, ad infinitum, *all the way down*. This idea doesn’t come from any myths, it’s just an illustrative expression.
Infinite regress is a general term for such situations, where there is no satisfying ultimate cause, every answer raises another question (in this specific example, the question of “what does THAT turtle rest on?”)
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