Which came first? Chicken or the Egg?
This is a famous and ancient dilemma, which in my sense is specifically answered in the modern science and philosophy. However, for the commoner still there seems to be a dilemma on the answer. This has nothing to do with evidence. As I will explain next, evolutionary biology has pointed out there is no answer to the question. The dilemma still prevails only until we understand the lexical logic of it.
Let's look back at the question. First thing we notice is there is inherent error in the question. Obviously if someone asked the question which came first? Answer should be Egg, nobody asked Which came first "Chicken or the Chicken egg?". Eggs have been there even before evolution brought us, chicken in that case even birds. Dinosaurs had laid Eggs! That is one possible answer and solution.
If we think about chicken and chicken egg, we can write the following flow chart.
Chicken -> Egg -> Chicken -> Egg -> Chicken -> Egg -> Chicken -> Egg
Is it the Chicken?
As you can see this is the real problem and the dilemma. However, according to evolutionary theory in biology to have an Egg, protein which is called Ovocleiden 17 should be there on the Egg shell, which is produced by the Hen and not present in the Egg. Hence really speaking Hen should have come first. But the biological answer is a little deeper than that. Let's Assume chicken developed from a Pre-Historic-Chicken. Then our flow chart would be something like following.
Prehistoric Chicken -> Egg (with Prehistoric Chicken in it) ->
Prehistoric Chicken -> Egg (With Chicken in it)->
Chicken -> Egg -> Chicken -> Egg
Is it the Egg?
If we assume above is correct, it is the Egg which came first. However evolutionary biology doesn't say It was the Egg which came first either. As above chart is wrong. Evolution did not happen overnight form Prehistoric Chicken -> Chicken Egg. It was a gradual transition of accumulated mutations over Generations of Prehistoric Chicken. So, really speaking It is a spectrum of species each successor is less and less of Prehistoric Chicken and more and more of modern Chicken. And Eggs have also evolved similarly.
That is the true answer to the Chicken and Egg problem if we want to answer scientifically. And more accurately put.
Science suggests, if we go back the ancestry pathway of chicken and egg, at some point there would be no chicken and no chicken eggs. So, there is no correct answer, as the question itself is wrong.
Philosophical solution
If we forget the science and took it literally and philosophically. Still, this would be a question with no answer as Aristotle in fourth century BCE concluded that this is an infinite sequence with no true origin.
Disputes- Chicken or Egg Killer.
Google tells me about a Duo in Indonesia, who engaged in Chicken and Egg debate. And one has stabbed the other in a heated argument. As I have provided more definite conclusion, I think we should all learn it, in case not to get involved in Such arguments ourselves. Of course, that is not the objective of this article. Objective of this article is to use chicken and egg principle to use in our mindfulness wisdom. I have used this same principle to discuss the origin of the universe, or before the big bang. Here we will discuss the Origin of observer and observed.
Observer and observed, which comes first- applied philosophy of chicken or egg?
Mind is like a Turing machine, or a simple computer. At any given time, it points at one mental object. It may be a Chicken, or an egg. But not both. This is the observed. It may be a sound, a vision, a touch or even a thought. Something which arises in our six senses. Then there is the observer, behind the eyes. The question is Which comes first Observer or the Observed?
Answer seems obvious. As we feel observer, or the 'Self' had been there ever since we can remember. However, this also a 'thought' or a 'memory' which comes to our mind in this instance. Hence something 'observed'.
It appears such a question is absurd, as it seems both the observer and the observed appear at the same time, in the consciousness. One could say that these are singular, rather than two things, and would not be wrong. We can better understand this from a perspective of a blind person, as we take down each sensation magically the observed world and the observer would disappear.
At this point in time as a humble student of mindfulness, I am not aware of the meaning of this observation. However, I am sure great philosophers of past and present know that what we see is not what it is but who we are.
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