<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Look up chicken - or - egg question in Wiktionary, the free dictionary . </Td> </Tr> <P> The chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as "which came first: the chicken or the egg?". The dilemma stems from the observation that all chickens hatch from eggs and all chicken eggs are laid by chickens . "Chicken - and - egg" is a metaphoric adjective describing situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the cause and which should be considered the effect, or to express a scenario of infinite regress . Plutarch posed the question as a philosophical matter in his essay "The Symposiacs", written in the 1st century CE . </P> <P> The question represents an ancient folk paradox addressing the problem of origins and first cause . Aristotle, writing in the fourth century B.C., would describe the problem . He concluded that this was an infinite sequence, with no true origin . Plutarch, writing four centuries later, specifically highlighted this question as bearing on a "great and weighty problem (whether the world had a beginning)." In the fifth century CE, Macrobius wrote that while the question seemed trivial, it "should be regarded as one of importance ." </P> <P> By the end of the 16th century, the well - known question seemed to have been regarded as settled in the Christian world, based on the origin story of the Bible . In describing the creation of animals, it allows for a first chicken that did not come from an egg . However, later enlightenment philosophers began to question this solution . </P>

Who came first the egg or the hen