chicken-or-egg question
Origin precedence puzzle
A chicken-or-egg question asks which of two mutually dependent things came first, when each seems to require the other to exist.
From the ancient puzzle: a chicken hatches from an egg, but eggs come from chickens.
The phrase describes any circular causality problem where establishing priority seems impossible: Whether poverty causes crime or crime causes poverty is a chicken-or-egg question.
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- conundrumPerplexing problem or question
- dilemmaForced choice between undesirables
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
- causalityCause-effect connection
self-reference · infinite regress · irreducibility · problem · enigma · feedback loops · recursion · vicious circle · infinite loop · causal loop · riddle · existence · epistemology · beginner's mind · reproduction · determinism · ontology · free will
chicken-or-egg questionno-brainer
Self-evident decision
foregone conclusion · slam dunk · rhetorical question · fait accompli
chicken-or-egg questionfirst cause
Initial triggering factor
prime mover · root cause · starting point · domino effect · genesis
chicken, chickens, egging, question, questions, questioned, questioning, questioner, questionable