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"Turtles all the way down" is a jocular expression of the infinite regress problem in cosmology posed by the "unmoved mover" paradox. The metaphor in the anecdote represents a popular notion of the theory that Earth is actually flat and is supported on the back of a World Turtle, which itself is propped up by a chain of larger and larger turtles. Questioning what the final turtle might be standing on, the anecdote humorously concludes that it is "turtles all the way down". The phrase has been commonly known since at least the early 20th century. A comparable metaphor describing the circular cause and consequence for the same problem is the "chicken and egg problem". The same problem in epistemology is known as the Münchhausen trilemma. ==History== The origins of the turtle story are uncertain. It has been recorded since the mid 19th century, and may possibly date to the 18th. One recent version appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book ''A Brief History of Time,'' which starts: Hawking's suggested connection to Russell may be due to Russell's 1927 lecture ''Why I Am Not a Christian.'' In it, while discounting the First Cause argument intended to be a proof of God's existence, Russell comments: :"If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu's view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, 'How about the tortoise?' the Indian said, 'Suppose we change the subject. In John R. Ross's 1967 linguistics dissertation ''Constraints on Variables in Syntax'', the scientist is identified as the Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James. Of the story's provenance, Ross writes:〔John R. Ross (1967). Constraints on variables in syntax. (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Available at MIT Theses (http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/15166). See page iv of the ms., page 4 of the electronic file.〕 The earliest known version of the story in its "turtle" form appeared in 1854, in a transcript of remarks by preacher Joseph Frederick Berg addressed to Joseph Barker: Many 20th-century attributions point to William James as the source.〔Robert Anton Wilson (1983). Prometheus Rising. Phoenix, AZ: New Falcon Publishers. p. 25. ISBN 1-56184-056-4〕 James referred to the fable of the elephant and tortoise several times, but told the infinite regress story with "rocks all the way down" in his 1882 essay, "Rationality, Activity and Faith": In the form of "rocks all the way down", the story predates James to at least 1838, when it was printed in an unsigned anecdote about a schoolboy and an old woman living in the woods: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Turtles all the way down」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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