Onion Paradox

The picture shows a planted onion. At that stage it is not quite clear if the new onion is growing healthy.

Onion paradox

In bio-philosophy, the onion paradox refers to the thought experimental paradox, that taking a whole onion as a seed to grow a new one, one will still end up with the same amount of onions (one) afterwards.

Introduction

The onion is a vegetable bulb. It is highly cultivated and important in nutrition in a lot of regions around the world.

Growing an onion from an onion

Generally, it is possible to grow an onion from another onion. The process is similar to planting a sprouted onion. The "Old Farmer’s Almanac" provides a paragraph on the issue in which the paradox is already mentioned: "Yes, you can plant a sprouted onion, though you won’t get more onions from it."

Recursiveness in onion's life cycle

The thought experiment of the necessity of a whole onion as a seed leads to a recursive progress: Once the onion is planted, it can grow. If all environmental factors meet the needs, it does it in a prosperous and healthy way. After some time a new onion can be harvested. From an ontological perspective though, the old onion does not exist any more. The new onion reaches the same state that the old onion had before, which forms a recursive process. This recursiveness in the onion's life cycle constitutes the onion paradox.

References

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