2006-09-20 22:28:16 · 17 answers · asked by briwgee 1 in Sports ➔ Football ➔ English Football
The chicken or the egg is a reference to the causality dilemma which arises from the expression "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". Since both the chicken and the egg create the other in certain circumstances (a chicken emerges from an egg; an egg is laid by a chicken) it is ambiguous which originally gave rise to the other. Purely logical attempts to resolve the dilemma result in an infinite regress, since an egg was caused by a chicken, which was caused by an egg, etc. Since every chicken originates from its egg, it seems obvious the egg came first. Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life. The solution may require an examination of syntax and may rely on verification from advances in modern genetic science. When used in reference to difficult problems of causality, the chicken and egg dilemma is often used to appeal to the futility of debate and lay it to rest.
History of the problem
The earliest reference to the dilemma is found in Plutarch's Moralia, in the books titled "Table Talk," in a series of arguments based on questions posed in a symposium. Under the section entitled, "Whether the hen or the egg came first," the discussion is introduced in such a way as to suggest that the origin of the dilemma was even older:
"...the problem about the egg and the hen, which of them came first, was dragged into our talk, a difficult problem which gives investigators much trouble. And Sulla my comrade said that with a small problem, as with a tool, we were rocking loose a great and heavy one, that of the creation of the world..."
Various answers have been formulated in response to the question, many of them humorous.
As suggested by the alternative definitions and solutions given below, the chicken-or-egg dilemma has multiple semantic variants and can thus be viewed as an exercise in semantics. Regarding at least two of these variants, the field of biology contains decisive contextual information. Although the problem has been around in one form or another for millennia, making it difficult or impossible to know who first "solved" it, the biological information needed to resolve all of the obvious semantic variants has only been available for decades.
A modern analysis covering all of the major variants was authored by Christopher Langan, published in 2001 on the Mega Foundation website[1], and subsequently included in his book of essays, The Art of Knowing [1]. It appeared again in The Improper Hamptonian [2], was included in abbreviated form in a 2001 Long Island Newsday Q&A column featuring Langan [3], and was compactly summarized in Langan's 2001 Popular Science interview.
A CNN article on May 26, 2006 featured an analysis, according to which the egg came first [2]. The key criteria on which CNN bases its answer, involving relatively recent findings from reproductive and evolutionary biology, are identical to several of those cited in the prior analysis.
2006-09-21 14:39:37 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer depends upon whether you belive in evolution or creation.
If you beliueve in evolution then the egg came first: Genetic variation occurs with every generation, the creature that laid the first chicken egg was ever so similar to a chicken but genetically different enough to not be classified as a chicken.
If you believe in creationism then the chicken was put on this earth in adult form and hasn't changed.
2006-09-22 09:12:26 · answer #2 · answered by christianstrauss51 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The egg, of course. Chicken would not normally be eaten for breakfast whereas eggs could be eaten for any meal. Hence the egg comes first in most peoples' day.
2006-09-20 22:42:42 · answer #3 · answered by Clive 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Has to be the chicken. How can and egg just turn up. If you go back in time the chicken would have changed its structure to lay eggs. If we want to get really stupid it was plankton and bacteria that formed them both and back further it was the big bang which is what life based itself on. So were all star dust
2006-09-20 22:39:43 · answer #4 · answered by alismudge 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
oh they finally answered this one. it was the egg.
because a chicken doesn't have the 'whatever' it needs to change its dna but an egg does. therefore an egg from something else could have evolved into a chicken! therefore egg first, chicken second
2006-09-20 22:31:07 · answer #5 · answered by Andromeda Newton™ 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The chicken
2006-09-20 22:30:10 · answer #6 · answered by hadjama 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
In Sainsburys you get to the chicken first. The eggs are near the bread. Not sure what they do in Tesco
2006-09-20 23:31:37 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
the egg .. just it wasnt a chicken that came out to start with .. long period of strange interbreeding .. kinda the was the world going just now ....
2006-09-20 22:56:02 · answer #8 · answered by hallowedredemption 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Stick this question in English Football, that'll get you a sensible answer !!
Chicken...it used to lay chicks but found they were all eaten by the rats. So they evolved into the hard shell.
2006-09-20 22:39:14 · answer #9 · answered by Michael H 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I do not know what came before but the egg came from behind the hen.
2006-09-20 22:36:10 · answer #10 · answered by ananth59 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋