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An [[infinite regression]] is a proposed chain of causation in which each purported cause itself requires another event of exactly the same type to cause ''it.''
This begs the question of what set the original chain in motion--in short, what was the "first cause." Whether all things must have a "first cause" or not, is a subject of debate. Some would suggest that infinite regression is a variant of [[perpetual motion]], something no inventor has ever been able to achieve and which no [[patent]] examiner has ever (thus far) accepted as valid.
== An example ==
Many [[sciece|scientists]], observing the remarkable complexity of life (and especially of [[DNA]], the [[molecule]] that holds the complete instruction set for life), doubt strenuously that life could have originated on the earth out of non-life--a process called [[abiogenesis]]. [[Francis H. Crick]], the co-discoverer of [[DNA]], recognized this early and also is alleged to have recognized other conditions that abiogenesis would have required, that in all [[probability]] did not exist on earth. But Dr. Crick was singularly unwilling to admit that [[God]] created life by His Divine fiat. Therefore, Crick assumed that life did ''not'' originate on earth, but was ''deposited'' on earth from outside.
How, then, did this happen? Most proponents of his outside-seeding of life, called [[panspermia]], suggest that the [[comet]]s contain the seeds of life within their tails, and the earth acquired these seeds by passing through a comet's tail. Dr. Crick and his colleague [[Leslie H. Orgel]] assumed something far more radical: that an advanced [[civilization]] built and launched a brace of intergalactic [[ballistic missile]]s, each laden with bacteria and blue-green algae, in all directions from their homeworld. One such missile crash-landed on earth, and all life on earth is the by-product of the payload of that missile.
But this begs one of two questions:
#Where did life originate, that it would then infiltrate multiple cometary tails?
#Did yet ''another'' advanced civilization fire the missile that provided the seed of life from which the ''most recent launch authority'' had its own origins?
For each step, the observer must ''regress'' one age into the past. The problem is that he never stops regressing. ''An infinite regression cannot have an identifiable first cause.''
== Classical illustrations of infinite regression ==
The oldest practical illustration of the concept of infinite regression requires the experimenter to erect two mirrors facing one another, and then to stand between them. He will see his own image looking back at him, and then the back of his own head, and then his face, and so on, an infinite number of times.
A more modern experiment requires a [[television]] camera and receiver. If one sends the signal from the camera to the receiver, and then ''aims the camera at the receiver,'' the receiver will show a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, and so on to infinity.
== Debate ==
The subject of infinite regression--its validity, defensibility, and possible applicability to real-world situations--is being debated [[Is infinite regression ever valid as a form of reasoning, or acceptable as a way the universe works, or came to be?|here]].
== See also ==
* [[Logical fallacy]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
This begs the question of what set the original chain in motion--in short, what was the "first cause." Whether all things must have a "first cause" or not, is a subject of debate. Some would suggest that infinite regression is a variant of [[perpetual motion]], something no inventor has ever been able to achieve and which no [[patent]] examiner has ever (thus far) accepted as valid.
== An example ==
Many [[sciece|scientists]], observing the remarkable complexity of life (and especially of [[DNA]], the [[molecule]] that holds the complete instruction set for life), doubt strenuously that life could have originated on the earth out of non-life--a process called [[abiogenesis]]. [[Francis H. Crick]], the co-discoverer of [[DNA]], recognized this early and also is alleged to have recognized other conditions that abiogenesis would have required, that in all [[probability]] did not exist on earth. But Dr. Crick was singularly unwilling to admit that [[God]] created life by His Divine fiat. Therefore, Crick assumed that life did ''not'' originate on earth, but was ''deposited'' on earth from outside.
How, then, did this happen? Most proponents of his outside-seeding of life, called [[panspermia]], suggest that the [[comet]]s contain the seeds of life within their tails, and the earth acquired these seeds by passing through a comet's tail. Dr. Crick and his colleague [[Leslie H. Orgel]] assumed something far more radical: that an advanced [[civilization]] built and launched a brace of intergalactic [[ballistic missile]]s, each laden with bacteria and blue-green algae, in all directions from their homeworld. One such missile crash-landed on earth, and all life on earth is the by-product of the payload of that missile.
But this begs one of two questions:
#Where did life originate, that it would then infiltrate multiple cometary tails?
#Did yet ''another'' advanced civilization fire the missile that provided the seed of life from which the ''most recent launch authority'' had its own origins?
For each step, the observer must ''regress'' one age into the past. The problem is that he never stops regressing. ''An infinite regression cannot have an identifiable first cause.''
== Classical illustrations of infinite regression ==
The oldest practical illustration of the concept of infinite regression requires the experimenter to erect two mirrors facing one another, and then to stand between them. He will see his own image looking back at him, and then the back of his own head, and then his face, and so on, an infinite number of times.
A more modern experiment requires a [[television]] camera and receiver. If one sends the signal from the camera to the receiver, and then ''aims the camera at the receiver,'' the receiver will show a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, holding a picture of itself, and so on to infinity.
== Debate ==
The subject of infinite regression--its validity, defensibility, and possible applicability to real-world situations--is being debated [[Is infinite regression ever valid as a form of reasoning, or acceptable as a way the universe works, or came to be?|here]].
== See also ==
* [[Logical fallacy]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]