Back معضلة الدجاجة والبيضة Arabic Toyuq və ya yumurta Azerbaijani L'ou o la gallina Catalan Paradossu di l'ovu è di a ghjaddina Corsican Slepice, nebo vejce? Czech Hønen eller ægget Danish Henne-Ei-Problem German Η κότα έκανε το αυγό ή το αυγό την κότα Greek Paradokso de kokino kaj ovo Esperanto El huevo o la gallina Spanish

Chicken or the egg

This article is about the philosophical dilemma. For the dish combining both chicken meat and eggs, see oyakodon.

Illustration from Tacuina sanitatis, 14th century

The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as the question, "which came first: the chicken or the egg?" The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens. "Chicken-and-egg" is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the cause and which should be considered the effect, to express a scenario of infinite regress, or to express the difficulty of sequencing actions where each seems to depend on others being done first. Plutarch posed the question as a philosophical matter in his essay "The Symposiacs", written in the 1st century CE.[1][2]

  1. ^ "Essays and Miscellanies, by Plutarch". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  2. ^ O'Brien, Carl Séan (2015). The Demiurge in Ancient Thought. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-107-07536-8.

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