Philosophical Dictionary (Comte-Sponville)

Buridanov Donkey

Buridanov Donkey

♦ Âne de Buridan

The name of the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan is known today solely thanks to this very donkey, the parable of which is attributed to him, although none of his surviving works mentions any donkey. What is it all about? we're talking about? About a fable or some fictitious situation, the essence of which is as follows. Imagine a donkey, starving and thirsty in equal measure, standing exactly halfway between a bucket of water and a trough of oats. Having no reason to go right or left, the donkey will not be able to choose between water and oats and will die of hunger and thirst. Sometimes this story is cited as evidence that free will is impossible (the actions of each of us are determined by our idea of ​​good, necessity, or the availability of a goal); sometimes, arguing exactly the opposite, that it is precisely possible (since, when applied to a person, the fable of Buridan’s donkey seems absurd). Disputes about this have been going on non-stop for six centuries. So the donkey is still alive.

encyclopedic Dictionary

Buridanov Donkey

paradox of absolute determinism in the doctrine of will: a donkey placed on equal distance from two identical bundles of hay, he must die of hunger, because he will not be able to choose one or another bundle. This image was not found in the works of J. Buridan. In a figurative sense, a person hesitates in choosing between two equivalent possibilities.

08.01.2019 18.02.2019 Alexander Firtsev

Animal images often inspire people to create meaningful expressions. In this regard, a donkey cannot be called a superhero. He is credited with stupidity, stubbornness, and rudeness. Comparisons with ungulates are unflattering for pride. For example, Valaam’s donkey is a name given to a submissive, uncomplaining person who suddenly decides to speak. What about Buridan's donkey? What is the subtext of this phrase?

The meaning of phraseology

An extremely doubtful person who hesitates to make a choice in favor of one of two equally attractive options is compared to Buridan's donkey. He is tempted by one or another lucrative offer.

As a result, the poor fellow misses both options, without having time to decide on his preferences. For example, someone is given the chance to fly to Egypt for the New Year holidays. And a day later an invitation arrives from friends from Switzerland. Imagining either warm sea waves or the snowy peaks of the Alps, the lucky person is carried away so far in his dreams that he “awakens” to action only on December 31st. He hurries to order tickets, but they are no longer available. New Year you have to meet it in the standard way: with a bowl of Olivier and Maxim Galkin.

Looks like Buridan's donkey only child in a large family, who are vying for entertainment during the holidays. Grandma bought tickets to puppet show, grandpa invites you to go skiing in the forest, mom and dad have planned a trip to a festive super mega show in a neighboring city. The child is lost because of the abundance of possibilities. Adults pull him in different directions. Instead of joy, a feeling of annoyance remains in the child’s soul. Even after making a choice in favor of his parents, the baby does not feel happy. Sometimes adults need to be smarter.

Asinine behavior is demonstrated by a young man wondering whether he should get married. After consulting with married friends, he understands that married life has advantages: an established life, order in the house, a conquered and tamed woman nearby. On the other hand, being single is so tempting! No one commands you, you are in charge free time and money. While he is making a decision, his beloved despairs of receiving an offer and unconsciously sets her sights on “someone distant from him.” The choice must be made on time.

Origin of phraseology

The statement that a donkey placed at the same distance from two haystacks will not decide to go to either is called the paradox of intellectual determinism. According to legend, the 14th century French philosopher Jean Buridan, while researching the human psyche, decided to conduct an experiment on his own donkey. He offered the animal feeders, one of which contained barley, and the other - oats. Instead of having a stomach feast, the donkey pondered the choice for three whole days, after which he died of starvation.

However, this is just a legend. In fact, the parable of the donkey dates back to the writings of Aristotle. Buridan only developed her idea, suggesting that the need to choose twice slows down decision making. Leibniz later returned to the same metaphor. It was he who first used the expression. According to modern biologists, an animal will never choose to starve to death if food is available. Buridan's donkey behaves too humanly, he is tormented by existential questions. Real animals are more natural and simpler: the donkey will think and think, and then start eating. Don't let so much goodness go to waste!

Synonymous expressions

Phraseologism has synonyms that hint at the difficulty of choosing; the following proverbs especially accurately convey the content of the phrase:

• Where should I go: to the smart ones or to the beautiful ones?
• If you chase two hares, you won’t catch either.
• You can't sit on two chairs at once.

No matter how indecisive you may be, remember: choice is wonderful! Let it not scare you, but give you freedom and inspiration. And don’t delay making decisions like Buridan’s donkey, otherwise someone will take you by the leash and lead you wherever he wants.

The story about the donkey has very ancient origins. Laid the foundation for it ancient philosopher Aristotle. In his works, he preferred to substantiate all conclusions with examples that his contemporary could observe in the world around him, since only practice and empirics can form the basis of a theory. Describing the difficulties that a person with freedom of choice will face, this ancient Greek sage suggested imagining a donkey standing on a path between two lawns and cannot decide where to go to graze.

In the Middle Ages, the works of ancient authors were studied selectively. Contrary to established ideas about total censorship and the raging Inquisition, in those days there were also philosophers and scientists, albeit loyal to the church and ready, if necessary, to support their colleagues from the theological workshop.

Among the prominent scientists of the Middle Ages was Jean Buridan. His memory has been preserved thanks to his works on mechanics and commentaries on the works of Aristotle. It's interesting that none of the books written by Buridan make any mention of the above-mentioned donkey paradox.

However, in people's memory A story has been preserved about how Buridan, speaking about the difficulty of choice, gave the example of a donkey. There are different versions of this story. In some, the scientist himself, mocking his pet, offers him two pieces of hay equal in size and quality. There is even a dramatic ending to this event - an animal unable to make a choice dies of hunger. In other versions of the retelling, Jean Buridan is only the theorist of feeding donkeys with hay.

One can come to the conclusion that Jean Buridan himself came to the conclusions that Aristotle had made before him. Because of this, the paradox is remembered with the name of the thinker closest to modernity.

The meaning of phraseology

The image of the crossroads where the hero of the story spends his time is characteristic even folk tales, whose history is much more ancient than that of philosophical teachings. From time immemorial, people have noticed that making a choice is very difficult. In the paradox, this situation is reflected most clearly and reliably. The tragic ending of the experiment once again emphasizes the moral of the story.

Buridan's donkey is a person who finds it difficult to decide among the prospects that life offers him.

• There may be several reasons for indecisiveness in choosing your option:
• the desire to get double benefits without taking any risks. A person waits, watches for changes in order to settle on a win-win option;
• inability to make independent decisions, lack of a clear understanding of what exactly the soul desires;

a state of being overwhelmed by what is offered. If a person has an underestimated assessment of the world around him, then even to a standard alternative he can respond with a state of shock. At the same time, the one who is called Buridan’s donkey is simply wasting time, since the choice should be made as quickly as possible. Offers have certain period and will soon become irrelevant. The image of the animal itself, which people do not consider very intelligent, suggests that.

this title can be attributed to sarcastic, mocking

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived in the fourth century BC, told his students and listeners a parable. In his Buridan story, the donkey is an indecisive man who dies of thirst and hunger. This person is within walking distance of food and food and does not know what to choose for his salvation.
What Aristotle really meant was that if a person is faced with such a choice, he should choose what he thinks will turn out to be the greatest good for him. Much later, in the Middle Ages, the scholastic philosopher Jean Buridan retold this parable in different words.

BURIDAN'S DONKEY PROBLEM

Actually there is no problem. There is a donkey dying of hunger, and there are two piles of seemingly identical hay. What to choose? According to the parable, the donkey can endlessly decide and in the end simply die of hunger. Also, a lop-eared animal can simply choose one of two haystacks and start eating. Jean Buridan was able to formulate the question of choice in exactly this way. Is it possible to make a rational choice if it is not entirely possible to calculate what this or that decision will lead to? True, according to rumors that have survived to this day, Buridan, when telling this story to his listeners, always asked if he had seen donkeys die in such cases. Otherwise, all of Asia would simply be littered with the corpses of eared animals. In fact, animals are not tormented by the problem of choice; this property is inherent only in humans.

EITHER PAN OR MISSING

In fact, Buridan's ass is each of us at least several times a week. How often do you catch yourself thinking about what is best for you to do in a particular situation and which of two evils to choose? This question is illustrated very well by the famous joke about a monkey who could not decide who to join - the smart ones or the beautiful ones.
There is not and cannot be a single correct answer in such situations, because a person has his own worldview and worldview.

HEADS OR TAILS?

Let's start from the very beginning simple option– when you need to choose one of two alternatives (things, objects, possibilities). In such a situation, the “heads or tails” principle is often used, which, of course, greatly simplifies the selection procedure itself, but automatically presupposes that the chooser has a certain “submission to fate.” As they say, “it’s hit or miss.” Although I recently came across a note on the Internet that claims that a tossed coin is governed by some complex physical laws.

DON'T LIT!

However, even without the intervention of complex scientific theories They managed to make the choice of two equivalent alternatives extremely difficult back in ancient times, by inventing the well-known parable about Buridan’s donkey, which died of hunger, unable to choose which of two identical haystacks it was better for him to start his meal with. The parable demonstrates what very often happens in many scientific discussions about choice, where one problem is imperceptibly replaced by another. A real donkey would probably be smarter than the philosophers who invented it and would hardly bother with the problem of the absolute identity of two haystacks, but would obey the instinct of self-preservation, which prescribes to satisfy hunger at all costs, and not to solve complex problems. logic puzzles. He would just start eating one of the haystacks! And I would have a second bite for future use. It would be nice for a mere mortal to use this very “donkey strategy”, that is, to ask not the question of implementing a complex pattern, but to remember the purpose of his choice. The donkey's main task is to eat, and not to choose the best of the haystacks. You immediately understand that only people are capable of so sophisticatedly fooling themselves with speculative reasoning to the detriment of their own stomach.

STEP INTO THE FUTURE

The problem is that any choice is always a certain choice of the future. And we evaluate it, already looking back from the “resulting” future, and decide whether it was successful or not very successful. Therefore, the task itself - to make a good choice - has no solution in the present tense. You can only take certain actions that will or will not bring positive results in the future. As a result, the problem of choice often comes down not to choice as such, but to the problem of a person’s lack of an image of the desired future. To the inability to formalize own wish– what do we need? That is, behind the problem of choice we often hide the problem of introspection. We can't decide what we need.

"FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Often behind the problem of choice there are “hidden” problems generated, so to speak, by a certain organization of our consciousness and education based on currently “current” values. After all, in order for a person to lose sleep when deciding which brand of clothing to prefer, this very choice of “brand” must be significant for him. If you take a closer look, “freedom of choice” is allowed in modern society almost exclusively in the sphere of consumption. At one time, even the very concept of “freedom” somehow imperceptibly “stuck together” with the ability to choose goods and services. The abundance of goods has become a symbol free world. But what is freedom? Is it that they strictly dictate to you how you should look at work, introducing the concept of a “dress code”? Or is it that to a certain degree of wealth, society dictates everything to you - the brand of car, place of residence, method and place of recreation? And only the richest are again allowed to “wonder” and decide at their own discretion. There is an old joke about how a young employee came to a cool company, where there was very strict control over compliance with all modern standards, from clothing to strict ban to smoke, and suddenly sees a man in faded jeans and a faded T-shirt smoking by the window. He is surprised and quite loudly begins to wonder who it is. To which he receives an answer in a frightened whisper: “Hush, hush, don’t disturb him! The last time he thought like this, our company earned tens of millions of dollars!”

FEAR AS A STIMULUS

Quite often, choices, especially in personal relationships, are made out of fear or under duress of circumstances. Not everyone has the courage to risk waiting for “their” person. More than once I have heard from those who come for consultations about problems that have not worked out family relations I will tell you that the motivation for marrying this particular man was: “there was no other”, “he was the best there was”, “it was time to have a child.” It’s another matter that life is such a complex and unpredictable thing, and human relationships are such a mysterious substance that sometimes even with such flimsy foundations things happen happy marriages. Even “on the fly.”

THE MEANING OF PATIENCE

Self-control in the face of choice is also an art. If you can’t choose for a long time, most likely you are not very happy with both options - and circumstances do not allow you to wait for the third. If you nevertheless made your choice from two alternatives that are not entirely satisfactory, then be prepared to accept responsibility for the obvious - most likely, after some time you will not be satisfied with your choice and will have to choose again. So don’t invent people a place in your life, wait a little, and they themselves will take their rightful place.

RULES

So, before choosing, it’s worth considering a simple list of four questions: “Why do we choose? On what basis do we choose (what are we guided by?) In what situation do we choose?” And only then - “What do we choose?”

1. First, decide on the purpose of your choice - ask yourself a question about the reasons. Don’t forget that a clear understanding of “why” makes any “what” elementary.

2. Remember that often people in a situation of time pressure or the special significance of a win begin to introduce “secondary” reasons - from insignificant to fictitious. For example, when playing roulette or lottery, they begin to base their choices on “significant” dates, birthdays, etc., attributing to them the properties of “lucky” numbers. So if a choice has to be made in extreme conditions, trust your intuition. Especially when it comes to your professional competence.

3. There are some things you should come to terms with in advance and “don’t bother.” So, for example, in situations where we make choices under conditions beyond our control, we can only try to reduce risks. That is, either try to “calculate the risks” (which is modern conditions almost impossible), or “minimize” possible losses, risking in advance only that amount (those resources) that we can lose relatively painlessly.

4. One more opportunity should not be overlooked. After all, we don’t always really need to make a choice between something. Often the choice is to give it up. The simplest strategy is to reduce the value of what we are offered to choose or would like to receive, but there is no such opportunity. Let us at least recall the famous Krylov fable about the fox and the grapes: “It looks good, but it’s green - there are no ripe berries: you’ll immediately set your teeth on edge!”

The philosophical question that Aristotle posed will always excite human minds. Buridan's donkey - the meaning of the phraseological unit is revealed through the behavior of the animal, which must make a rational choice between absolutely identical treats.

There are several options for the origin of the phrase “Buridan’s donkey”. It is generally accepted that the character from the parable symbolizes stubbornness and stupidity, but this is not entirely true. In fact, this animal has been revered by people since ancient times. In those days, it was considered one of the signs of wealth.

The most famous donkey that carried Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. There is a famous philosophical parable about Buridan's donkey, which continues the thought of Aristotle. Its meaning is that a person needs time to comprehend the event.

Buridan's donkey is still controversial. The all-knowing Wikipedia writes about him. The parable is interpreted as evidence of the absence of free will: at the moment of choice, a person is guided by a stronger motivation. In reality, there are two haystacks and a hungry animal that must choose a treat or starve to death.

Buridan noted that it is not always possible to make a rational choice. The philosopher, with the help of a parable, sought to explain that the painful problem of making a decision is inherent only to people.

The time inevitably comes when you have to choose between:

• beautiful and not so beautiful;
• useful and useless;
• honest or dishonest;
• good and evil,
• dark or light.

The donkey spent a long time choosing between two equal haystacks and died of hunger without making a choice between two equal alternatives. He did not dare to start his meal, remaining between two stacks of absolutely identical hay.

This is exactly what happens with many scientific arguments about choice, when one problem is quietly replaced by another - less important one.

Without a doubt, real character It would not take long to decide, but would simply begin to eat, obeying instinct. The donkey is unable to reason logically. Wikipedia has no doubt that he would simply eat one of the haystacks, and without hesitation, would proceed to the second. After all, the main task of an animal is to satisfy its appetite so as not to die of starvation, and not to argue which of the haystacks is tastier.

The origin of this strategy is to remind mere mortals of the purpose of choice. This once again confirms that only people know how to engage in speculative reasoning to the detriment of their stomach. Pictures with funny Buridan's donkey the best for that confirmation, they were often used for caricatures.

Buridan's Ass Problem

There is a concept of divinity and darkness in the world. At the same time, material benefits and conveniences occupy a significant part in people’s lives. Every moment a person has to think, speak, make a choice between two haystacks. Act honestly or disregard moral rules for your own benefit.

Every thinking being passes the test of choice. There are events that at first seem like good luck for a person, but in the end bring complete disappointment. Much changes over the course of life, new desires arise. Only Buridan's donkey is a constant choice between good and evil.

Recognizing the truth of good is not easy, sometimes you can make a mistake, but if the choice is honest, then what result does life require from a person? First of all, learn to quickly make a choice, not to subordinate your mind to evil through temptations and pleasures.

What kind of person can be called Buridan's donkey?

This expression is used in relation to a person:

• doubting;
• extremely indecisive;
• hesitating for a long time.

The problem of Buridan's ass lies in the choice between approximately identical or seemingly identical options. As soon as a person chose, he immediately felt that he was living. When his consciousness is tormented by a problem, it is as if the person is not free. While the pros and cons of a proposal, for example, a vacancy, are being weighed for a long time, it will be filled by someone else who is more decisive and quickly analyzes the situation.

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Let's sum it up

The meeting in life with Buridan's donkey is perfectly illustrated by an anecdote in which the monkey takes a long time to choose who to classify himself as: smart or beautiful. In reality, the meaning of a phraseological unit can be found at every step. Almost every person is faced with a choice situation in life. If he thinks about it for a long time, he may lose the lucrative offer and he will be called Buridan’s donkey.