The paradoxical nature of the chicken and the egg.
Well its actually not that paradoxical is it? It's actually more of a problem with causality isn't it? Well again not really if you think about it logically.
First of all no one stated that the egg had to be a chicken egg, in which cause obviously it was the egg, as fish and reptiles where using eggs long before chickens where around.
But then you can argue that the fact it was a chicken egg was implied in the question, but that doesn't mean that the egg that hatched the chicken was laid by a chicken. It could mean that the last descendant of a bird species, which was not classified as a chicken, laid the egg which the first chicken came from. Meaning that the egg came first as it was laid by something other than a chicken.
But then there is the argument that a chicken egg is the egg laid by a chicken, which would make it easier to determine, as the chicken came first as it could have came from an egg not laid by a chicken.
But then you could say it has to be an egg that is laid by a chicken to hatch a chicken. But the problem here is where did the original chicken come from. Which would mean that the chicken would have to come first, answering your own question by limiting the field of answers.
Then when you take evolution into account, and the millions of years it takes for species to develop, and the fact that each generation is slightly different to the last, it makes the question pointless as there was no one point in history when the definition of chicken suddenly became apparent as each generation would have evolved slightly from the last to a very slight degree.
So in light of evolution, shove yer egg up yer arse and choke on yer chicken.
Besides. Arguing about the effects of timetravel is more fun anyways.
First of all no one stated that the egg had to be a chicken egg, in which cause obviously it was the egg, as fish and reptiles where using eggs long before chickens where around.
But then you can argue that the fact it was a chicken egg was implied in the question, but that doesn't mean that the egg that hatched the chicken was laid by a chicken. It could mean that the last descendant of a bird species, which was not classified as a chicken, laid the egg which the first chicken came from. Meaning that the egg came first as it was laid by something other than a chicken.
But then there is the argument that a chicken egg is the egg laid by a chicken, which would make it easier to determine, as the chicken came first as it could have came from an egg not laid by a chicken.
But then you could say it has to be an egg that is laid by a chicken to hatch a chicken. But the problem here is where did the original chicken come from. Which would mean that the chicken would have to come first, answering your own question by limiting the field of answers.
Then when you take evolution into account, and the millions of years it takes for species to develop, and the fact that each generation is slightly different to the last, it makes the question pointless as there was no one point in history when the definition of chicken suddenly became apparent as each generation would have evolved slightly from the last to a very slight degree.
So in light of evolution, shove yer egg up yer arse and choke on yer chicken.
Besides. Arguing about the effects of timetravel is more fun anyways.