Logical paradoxes have always attracted philosophers. One of them is familiar to us. What first appeared: an egg or a chicken? On the one hand, this phrase has long begun to symbolize empty disputes and decisions that cannot be found.
On the other hand, philosophers of all ages, and even modern scientists, have thought about solving the problem. I must say that the catch lies in the wording itself. Initially, it sounded not like an egg or chicken, but like an egg or bird. This is fundamentally important because it makes it possible to generalize. Here are some examples.
What first appeared: an egg or a chicken? The opinion of the ancients
Aristotle and Plutarch concluded that they appeared at the same time, reasoning something like this. A chicken (or bird) is born from an egg, so it cannot be the first. The egg carries a chicken, so it also cannot be the first. Therefore, they appeared at the same time.
What first appeared: egg or chicken (from the point of view of modern scientists)
Contemporaries act more cunningly: they analyze the meaning of words. So, an egg, they say, is a whole series of mutations that led to the formation of such a shape. There is no doubt that there is only one answer: the first egg appeared, because not only birds were born from the eggs, but also dinosaurs, and
other animals that lived before them.
If we keep in mind only a chicken egg, then the question will remain unanswered: scientists simply do not have facts.
If, in answer to the question: “What first appeared: an egg or a chicken?”, - replace the word “chicken” with the word “bird”, then you will have to argue differently. Undoubtedly, other types of birds existed before the chicken. Some of them were intermediate and possessed traits that did not quite resemble chicken. They carried something like eggs. And only at a certain point in time they began to be called the words “chicken” or “egg”. Such lengthy discussions do not answer the question posed. This technique of asking questions and answers uses concepts with fuzzy volume. This means that each term included in the phrase does not have a clear meaning. What is an egg? Who does chicken mean? Everyone can give his own words, a wider or narrower meaning. The non-paradoxical question is not just talking about the egg, but about the chicken egg. That is why the answer does not exist, more precisely, there may be several.
- An egg, because oviposition appeared much earlier than the appearance of a species called "chicken".
- Chicken because she began to lay eggs.
Other logical paradoxes
Such paradoxes are great training for the mind. History knows many of them.
- Everything written here is not true. If we accept that what is written has true meaning, then it will be false. But if we take for granted that the message is false, then the written will be true.
- Limit yourself in everything, even in limitation. (Petronius).
- If you put a cat in a dark box, put a hammer and an ampoule with poison there, then the cat will be alive and dead at the same time (Schrödinger).
- If you remove a grain of sand from a heap, when will it cease to be a heap?
Such paradoxes can be conceptual, definitive, probabilistic, mathematical, topological, etc.
