Did the chicken come first or is it turtles all the way down?

Re:Did the chicken come first or is it turtles all the way d... by Psyladine on Monday February 10, 2020 @11:39AM (#22290660)

Like the ship of theseus though, at what point does it stop being a chicken, i.e. its parent. The progenitor is 'obviously' whatever preceded the chicken, but that's just it - is that itself the egg or the chicken-maker? There you are started down the tautological root back to what first first conceived both whatwouldbe-egg and whatwouldbe-chicken to come.

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Re:Did the chicken come first or is it turtles all the way d... by LiquidSky on Monday February 10, 2020 @11:54AM (#22290826)

You're misusing the "Ship of Theseus" concept. That has to do with individual identity.

>at what point does it stop being a chicken, i.e. its parent.

When it doesn't meet the genetic definition of a chicken, however you choose to define that. Once you have a definition, there will be a point in evolutionary history where such a creature arises. Anything before that is not a chicken, so therefore

>is that itself the egg or the chicken-maker

Once again, the answer is "the egg". A pre-chicken creature produced an egg that hatched the first chicken. Problem neatly solved.

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Re:Did the chicken come first or is it turtles all the way d... by SiempreViernes on Monday February 10, 2020 @11:59AM (#22290885)

But what if ”chicken” is a singelton?

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Re:Did the chicken come first or is it turtles all the way d... by mannykannot on Monday February 10, 2020 @01:08PM (#22291576)

If that were so, everything about the issue would be different, but it is not so.

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