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↩️ To go backward 📊 To analyze data 🔄 Endless reasoning ↩️ A backward step
regress

regress

1 9.9
A chain of reasons that never ends because each reason needs another
  • noun
  • /rɪˈɡrɛs/
  • Formal
translation icon : regresión infinita
  • Can you have what they call an infinite regress so that there wouldn't be any starting clause?
  • infinite regress

It's unsatisfying for scientists, so they criticize it just because of the infinite regress.

Examples

  • Perhaps this infinite regress and the repetitive controversies associated with it are unavoidable.

    Academic text (1999)

  • And so we end up in an infinite regress where every time one seems to solve a problem, another problem emerges.

    Academic text (2008)

  • You should get the point by now: there is an infinite regress.

    Academic text (1997)

  • You cannot have an infinite regress of dependent things.

  • Does this lead into some sort of infinite regress of morality that will destroy the atheism movement?!

    Blog text (28)

  • The productive model should also stimulate some to wonder about infinite regress.

    Academic text (1991)

  • We quickly find ourselves in an infinite and seemingly intractable regress.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Unfortunately, the infinite regress thus introduced presents rather an uncomfortable heuristic overhead.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The citadel of knowledge lies abandoned, surrendered to the infinite regress of interpretation.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The concept of regress often causes confusion in debates about causality and evidence.

Synonyms

reasoning backward
vsregress
7.4

To start with the end and find steps to reach it

assumes the result and works back through prior causes, often creating an endless chain

Surface Forms

regress singular
regresses plural

Morphology

regress = re + gress

The philosophical/argumentative sense (infinite regress) is related to 'going back' but is a specialized abstract use that may not be obvious to an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Regress in philosophy also comes from Latin re- 'back' and gress 'step', and a helpful image is a line of steps going back and back with no end. That's why a philosophical regress is when each reason needs an earlier reason and the chain never stops.