DAY 103: The Chicken or the Egg

The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

To ancient philosophers, the question about the first chicken or egg also evoked the questions of how life and the universe in general began.

Cultural references to the chicken and egg intend to point out the futility of identifying the first case of a circular cause and consequence. It could be considered that in this approach lies the most fundamental nature of the question. A literal answer is somewhat obvious, as opposed to the logical fallacy of the metaphorical view, which sets a metaphysical ground on the dilemma. So, to understand its metaphorical meaning better, it could be reformulated as follows: "Which came first, X that can't come without Y, or Y that can't come without X?"

An equivalent situation arises in engineering and science known as circular reference, in which a parameter is required to calculate that parameter itself. Examples are Van der Waals equation and the famous Colebrook equation.

There are many real-world examples in which the chicken-or-egg question helps identify the analytical problem:

A graduate can't get a job because they have no experience, and can't get experience because no one will give them a job. (This is also an example of a Catch-22.)

Companies find it difficult to introduce new consumer media formats, such as audio recording formats. Most consumers won't buy players for the format until there are many recordings to play on those machines, but record companies won't offer most of their recordings in the new format until many customers have the players. The same scenario applies to video recording formats, video game console systems, and computer systems.

An actor cannot join the actor's union unless he has played a role in a union film, but a non-union actor cannot get a role in a union film because he isn't in the union.

In the popular Christmas song, it is stated that 'The Snowman brings the snow', but how did the Snowman originally get there?

Stephen Hawking and Christopher Langan argue that the egg came before the chicken, though the real importance of the question has faded since Darwin's ‘On the Origin of Species’ and the accompanying ‘Theory of Evolution’, under which the egg must have come first, assuming the question intended the egg to mean an egg in general or an egg that hatches into a chicken.

"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" – you decide.

Weight for me tomorrow. Paul

Paul Lambis is the author of “Where is Home?” – A journey of hilarious contrasts. 
For more information on Paul Lambis, and to order his book online,
visit www.paul-lambis.com