<P> "Turtles all the way down" is an expression of the infinite regress problem in cosmology posed by the "unmoved mover" paradox . The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports the earth on its back . The phrase suggests that this turtle rests on the back of an even larger turtle, which itself is part of a column of increasingly large turtles that continues indefinitely (i.e., that it is "turtles all the way down"). </P> <P> The exact origin of the phrase "turtles all the way down" is uncertain . In the form "rocks all the way down", the saying appears as early as 1838 . 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 . This mythology is frequently assumed to have originated in Hindu India . The final form of the saying is still well known and can be found in a variety of modern contexts . </P> <P> In the form of "rocks all the way down", the saying dates to at least 1838, when it was printed in an unsigned anecdote in the New York Mirror about a schoolboy and an old woman living in the woods: </P>

Origin of phrase turtles all the way down
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