"Like the old woman in the story who described the world as resting on a rock, and then explained that rock to be supported by another rock, and finally when pushed with questions said it was "rocks all the way down," he who believes this to be a radically moral universe must hold the moral order to rest either on an absolute and ultimate should or on a series of shoulds "all the way down.""
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William James, Rationality, Activity and Faith (1882). 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 this 1882 essay.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down
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Turtles all the way down
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