Hamiltons all the way down: Difference between revisions
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File:Nimble Ethanol Atlas.jpg|link=Nimble Ethanol Atlas|'''[[Nimble Ethanol Atlas (nonfiction)|Nimble Ethanol Atlas]]'''. | File:Nimble Ethanol Atlas.jpg|link=Nimble Ethanol Atlas|'''[[Nimble Ethanol Atlas (nonfiction)|Nimble Ethanol Atlas]]'''. | ||
File:Litany_Against_Decaffeination.jpg|link=Litany against decaffeination|The '''[[Litany against decaffeination]]''' (also known by its first sentence, '''I must not decaffeinate''') . | |||
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* [[Gnomon algorithm]] | * [[Gnomon algorithm]] | ||
* [[Gnomon Chronicles]] | * [[Gnomon Chronicles]] | ||
* [[Litany against decaffeination]] | |||
== Nonfiction cross-reference == | == Nonfiction cross-reference == | ||
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[[Category:Allen Hamilton (nonfiction)]] | |||
Latest revision as of 20:52, 31 December 2021
"Hamiltons all the way down" is an expression of the problem of infinite comic regress involving actor, director, teacher, and poet Allen Hamilton Bates.
Description
The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Hamilton who supports the flat earth on his back. It suggests that this Hamilton rests on the back of an even larger (or smaller) Hamilton, who himself is part of a column of increasingly larger (or smaller) World Hamiltons who continue indefinitely (i.e., "Hamiltons all the way down").
The exact origin of the phrase 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.
The expression has been used to illustrate problems such as the regress argument in dramaturgical epistemology.
In the News
The Litany against decaffeination (also known by its first sentence, I must not decaffeinate) .
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links
- Comment @ Facebook (9 August 2021)