Abstract
According to philosophers’ linguistic practice of the past many centuries, certain propositions entail infinite regresses (e.g., event2 caused event1, event3 caused event2, ad infinitum), and most infinite regresses are used as premises to support various conclusions. Since only propositions can be entailed or used as premises, it follows that infinite regresses are propositions. We will see in this book that they are a special kind of proposition, and that there are a variety of infinite regresses.
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Notes
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For example, Timothy Day (1987) and Oliver Black (1996: 111,123, 117–118) fail to distinguish between benign and vicious functions of an infinite regress because the few arguments they examine use only vicious regresses. Passmore (1970: 28) does make the distinction, but it is not clear whether he is aware that benign regresses can also be used as premises in infinite regress arguments.
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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Gratton, C. (2009). What is an Infinite Regress Argument?. In: Infinite Regress Arguments. Argumentation Library, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3341-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3341-3_1
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