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Just so there's no confusion
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this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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But is it a chicken egg because it hatches into a chicken or because it is laid by a chicken?
Because it hatches into a chicken, you're thinking of a chicken's egg
Wait, so is an unfertilized egg referred to as a chicken's egg, and never a chicken egg?
it contains the DNA of a chicken, if not a viable chicken embryo
"chicken's egg" is the owner of the egg the chicken inside it, or the one who laid it?
Likewise it's not clear that "chicken egg" refers to the creator of the egg or the inhabitant of it.
Pretending for the sake of semantic argument that any of these scenarios were possible:
If an alligator laid an egg and a chicken came out, was that a chicken egg?
If a chicken laid an egg and an alligator came out, was that a chicken egg?
But now consider, you know what I mean by the following phrase:
"An alligator laid a chicken egg, and an alligator hatched out of it"
One who laid it. Yes it is, it's the inhabitant. Yes. No. You mean alligator egg, not chicken egg.
"you mean alligator egg"
No, I didn't. And yet you still likely understand what I mean, or get close enough to what I mean that it doesn't matter, unless you're being intentionally obstinate.
And what do you think of the idea that the egg is simply a phase in the life of an animal, that the chicken is the egg it hatched from, not just the former inhabitant? In this case how can the egg be owned by the animal that laid it if it is itself an animal?
Like the caterpillar is the chrysalis is the butterfly, the chicken is the egg.
If it hatches into an alligator then it's an alligator egg, so yeah you did mean alligator egg. I actually don't know what you mean, because what you described doesn't make sense.
And I do think think that, it belongs to that creature just like you belong to your mom and vice versa. If somone pointed at your mom and said "that's PeriodicallyPedantic's mom" and you said "Aha! But how can she be mine when she's a different person!", they'd probably just say "the fuck you on about".
I honestly do not believe that when I said that, you not only didn't but we're unable to imagine an egg that by all properties confirmed to the expectations of a chicken egg until an alligator miraculously hatched out of it.
I do not believe you're debating in good faith
I genuinely cannot imagine that. It doesn't make any sense. The only property that is a necessary condition for an egg to be a chicken egg is that it has the potential for a chicken to hatch from it. So what you are describing has an inconsistency and is therefore nonsense. Do you mean an alligator egg that looks like a chicken egg? Because if so, then it's still an alligator egg.
Literally the only thing that matters is that an alligator hatches from it, so it's an alligator egg.
The amazing thing about imagination is it doesn't need to be consistent or based in reality. People can typically imagine such things.
For example, I can imagine an elephant disguised as a normal sized human in a trench coat, because within my imagination, hammerspace can exist.
As such, I can imagine an egg that has every single property of a chicken egg; look, flavour, size, smell, colour, etc, such that it was absolutely indistinguishable from a chicken egg until it miraculously hatched an alligator. I extremely strongly suspect that the overwhelming majority of people would have understood what was meant by the thought experiment.
And literally you're just asserting you're correct by fiat. The people on the other side make the exact same argument about their side. You seem to be missing that this entire dilemma hinges on the fact that there is no specific definition for "chicken egg", so to claim you're correct by definition is baseless afaict.
The best argument I've seen so far is that the entire dilemma doesn't even make sense since the chicken is the egg; it's the same animal just in different phases of its life, therefore one cannot come before the other; it'd be like saying "which came first, the chicken or the other chicken?". But that comes dangerously close to the question of when life begins, so gonna try to avoid that.
So I can imagine what you are describing, that is not the issue. It's just that I would not call that a chicken egg. And I could imagine a world in which it would be, but that's then not where we reside so it's not relevant.
Definition of an egg: an animal reproductive body consisting of an ovum together with its nutritive and protective envelopes and having the capacity to develop into a new individual capable of independent existence.