“雞”與“蛋”的千古之謎

文/王逢鑫

“雞”與“蛋”孰先孰后的問題，是個千古之謎，長期爭論不休。例如：

1. We’ve heard the classic expression, “which came fi rst, the chicken or the egg?” Chickens hatch from the eggs, but eggs are laid by the chickens,arousing endless debates for centuries. 我們都聽說過“雞和蛋，先有誰？”這個經典的表述。雞是從蛋孵化的，而蛋又是雞下的，從而引起幾個世紀無休止的辯論。

有人根據進化生物學，主張先有蛋，后有雞。例如：

2. According to evolutionary biology, the egg came fi rst as it evolved prior to birds. An animal must be born to become an adult. The egg is a pre-requisite to any egg-laying animal. And an egg-laying animal is hatched from an egg to become an adult. Therefore an egg must precede the adult. 根據進化生物學，先有蛋，因為蛋是在雞之前進化形成的。動物必須生出來，才能長大成年。蛋是任何產蛋動物的前提。產蛋動物是由蛋孵化而來，才能長大成年。所以蛋一定是出現在成年雞之前的。

3. According toThe Sun, British scientists have solved the ancient riddle of which came first—chicken or egg? The answer, they say, is the chicken.Researchers discovered that the formation of egg shells relies on a protein found only in a chicken’s ovaries. That means eggs have to be formed in chickens. The protein, called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17), speeds up the development of the shell.據英國《太陽報》報道，英國科學家已解開了“先有雞，還是先有蛋”的千古之謎。他們說：答案是“雞”。研究人員發現，蛋殼的形成依靠一種僅在雞的卵巢內才有的蛋白質。這意味著蛋需要在雞的體內形成。這種名叫OC-17的蛋白質能夠加速蛋殼的發育。

有人主張雞和蛋是相輔相成、缺一不可的。例如：

4. The chicken is in the egg, while the egg is in the chicken. Without the chicken, there is no egg. And without the egg, there is no chicken. The chicken and egg are interdependent, but they are not independent. 雞從蛋孵化而來，而蛋由雞生。沒有雞就沒有蛋。而沒有雞蛋也就沒有雞。雞與蛋相互依存，而不是各自獨立。

5. A dialectical answer from Hegel and Marx to the chicken-or-egg question is that the egg and chicken exist in a dialectical relationship. To reach the true nature of this dialectical relationship, we have to admit the fact that the egg creates the chicken just as much as the chicken creates the egg. 黑格爾和馬克思對“雞與蛋”問題的辯證回答是“蛋和雞存在于一種辯證關系之中”。為理解這種辯證關系的實質，我們需承認這一事實，即“正如雞生蛋一樣，蛋也孵雞”。

“雞”或“蛋”的因果關系，曾引起一些其他哲學問題的討論。例如：

6. To ancient philosophers, the question about the first chicken or egg also evoked the questions of how life and the universe in general began. 對古代哲學家來說，先有雞還是先有蛋的問題也引起了對生命和宇宙大致如何起源的思考。□