Chicken or the egg
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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 egg-laying species pre-date the existence of chickens. However, the metaphorical view sets a metaphysical ground to the dilemma. To better understand its metaphorical meaning, the question could be reformulated as: "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.
- Circular cause and consequence
- Catch-22 (logic)
- Evolutionary biology
- On the Origin of Species
- Grandfather paradox
- Predestination paradox
- Bootstrapping, a technique in computer programming used to avoid chicken-and-egg scenarios where two programs are mutually needed for compiling or loading each other
- Feedback loop