Buridan's ass

Buridan's Ass English Alternative forms en Buridan's Ass Etymology After the fourteenth-century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes. Proper noun The hypothetical donkey who is placed precisely midway between two sources of food or water. The hypothetical donkey in the context of certainly dying of hunger or thirst by being unable to choose between the two equidistant options. en 1985 Jean Buridan; Peter King Jean Buridan's Logic http://books.google.com.br/books?id=bo4Yxsc1Y6IC&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false 9789027719188 3 Springer Buridan is best-known to philosophers for the example of "Buridan's Ass," starving to death between two equidistant and equally tempting bales of hay, [...] en August 31 2003 Tony Dermody tdermody@iol.NODAMNJUNK.ie Re: A Few Questions 2lpcvpdh3zwc$.1mk81eq1qmfo3$.dlg@40tude.net alt.atheism.moderated http://groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism.moderated/msg/74511948e4c3dd1d They remain like Buridan's Ass, in a kind of frozen indecisiveness, between total freedom and total regulation. en September 6 2003 Euro euro82@excite.com PV's small arrangements with truth 4f3f4d56.0309061154.3fea3b3a@posting.google.com alt.activism.death-penalty http://groups.google.com/group/alt.activism.death-penalty/msg/57a8803b90b6c1fb Did you refuse to choose between saving your son sentenced to death penalty and saving your son sentenced to slavery for life? Is that not an indication that you find no difference between them, and are frozen, as Buridan's ass, into an inability to choose between them, and have instead chosen to starve morally, rather than make such a choice? en October 11 2003 Alex Martelli aleaxit@yahoo.com Re: Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme gGWhb.200390$hE5.6777507@news1.tin.it comp.lang.python, comp.lang.lisp, comp.lang.scheme http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/2c26a7a4b54c9fc7 The worst case for productivity is probably when two _perfectly equivalent_ ways exist. Buridan's ass notoriously starved to death in just such a worst-case situation; groups of programmers may not go quite as far, but are sure to waste lots of time & energy deciding. The hypothetical donkey, as a typical character of a number of philosophical paradoxes involving equally valuable incentives to action, and the nature of the possible choices and outcomes. en 1995 Ross Harrison World, mind, and ethics: essays on the ethical philosophy of Bernard Williams illustrated http://books.google.com.br/books?id=J6mXKCv0EF8C&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false 9780521479301 23 Cambridge University Press Since either haystack is better than starvation, and since neither haystack is known to be worse than the other, Buridan's ass has a good reason to choose either. Suppose it chooses haystack A, rejecting haystack B as well as starvation. en 2000 Kathryn L. Lynch Chaucer's philosophical visions illustrated http://books.google.com.br/books?id=am1IvIvsy1IC&pg=PA90#v=onepage&q&f=false 9780859916004 90 Boydell & Brewer Ltd This Narrator is like the famous or infamous Buridan's ass, protagonist of a problem or example that, in one form or another, can be found in philosophical discourse from Aristotle to Schpenhauer. en 2009 Peter Cave This sentence is false: an introduction to philosophical paradoxes http://books.google.com.br/books?id=xhIaZYcmxyIC&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q&f=false 9781847062192 9 Continuum International Publishing Group The ass's commitment to a seeming demand or rationality has damaged his health. Maybe we — and Buridan's ass — should often resist requiring a discriminating reason for rational action. Noun ~ en countable chiefly derogatory A person or organization who does not make a choice. en 1972 Sir George Edward Gordon Catlin For God's sake, go!: an autobiography The National Peace Council was, I will not say a Buridan's Ass, but a kind of eunuch organisation, unable to take a decision one way or another. en uncountable chiefly derogatory Collectively, people who do not make a choice. en 1972 The Statesman 22 http://books.google.com/books?id=6PgxAQAAIAAJ 76 Not that they are Buridan's ass; they just do not believe in categorical decisions. en August 11 2003 A Planet Visitor abcxyz@zbqytr.ykq Re: Where is Europe....Where is France tc3ejvkr2qekfefd2fp90esv07vu8fqtcl@4ax.com alt.activism.death-penalty http://groups.google.com/group/alt.activism.death-penalty/msg/62b6635c470d919d You are Buridan's ass, in your immoral refusal to head toward one or the other of what you claim are irresistible allures of 'human rights.' en May 6 2005 Doctor Make U. Feelgood nappynospam@eatthlink.net Re: Yom Hashoah LIidncWpaYTpj-HfRVn-tQ@giganews.com alt.activism.death-penalty http://groups.google.com/group/alt.activism.death-penalty/msg/83b48284d8c14288 You know the opinion you hold. You just will not divulge it... in cowardly fear of him turning on you. And not divulging it will not in the slightest keep him from turning on you whenever he feels like it. Please do not tell me you are Buridan's ass, and have no opinion about this. en Paradoxes en eponyms en Philosophy