Meaning of Buridan's ass | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Alternative spelling of Buridan's ass (“the hypothetical donkey who is the subject of a philosophical paradox concerning choices of equal value”).
   alt-of, alternative
2. The hypothetical donkey who is placed precisely midway between two sources of food or water.
3. The hypothetical donkey in the context of certainly dying of hunger or thirst by being unable to choose between the two equidistant options.
4. A person or organization who does not make a choice.
   countable, derogatory
5. 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.
6. Collectively, people who do not make a choice.
   derogatory, uncountable

Examples

“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, [...]”

“They remain like Buridan's Ass, in a kind of frozen indecisiveness, between total freedom and total regulation.”

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Not that they are Buridan's ass; they just do not believe in categorical decisions.”

“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.'”

“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.”

“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, [...]”

“They remain like Buridan's Ass, in a kind of frozen indecisiveness, between total freedom and total regulation.”

CEFR level