ABSTRACT
Insofar as we strive to be rational, we strive to believe on the basis of good reasons. For those reasons to be good, they must not only support our fi rst belief, but they themselves must also be believed for good reasons. This is where we begin to see a disturbing pattern. If that fi rst belief is to be held on the basis of good reasons, it seems we are in need of a very long chain of reasons. This is a rough-and-ready picture of the regress problem. It seems endemic to the project of believing on the basis of reasons. And thereby, it seems endemic to the very project of being rational.
