![]() ![]() "that the Earth had nine corners, whereby it was borne up by the Heaven. Veiga's account seems to have been received by Samuel Purchas, who has a close paraphrase in his Purchas His Pilgrims (1613/1626), ![]() When asked who would fix the body of the tortoise, so that it would not collapse, he said that he did not know. Another disagreeing from these would have the earth supported by seven elephants, and the elephants do not sink down because their feet are fixed on a tortoise. Others hold that the earth has nine corners by which the heavens are supported. The expression has been used to illustrate problems such as the regress argument in epistemology. References to the saying's mythological antecedents, the World Turtle and its counterpart the World Elephant, were made by a number of authors in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the form "rocks all the way down", the saying appears as early as 1838. The exact origin of the phrase is uncertain. It suggests that this turtle rests on the back of an even larger turtle, which itself is part of a column of increasingly larger turtles that continues indefinitely. The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports a flat Earth on its back. " Turtles all the way down" is an expression of the problem of infinite regress. ![]() Beneath each turtle is yet another, unlike this image, which shows only three turtles. Expression of the problem of infinite regress The saying holds that the world is supported by an infinite stack of increasingly larger turtles. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |