The ass: placed equidistant between two equivalent piles of hay, the ass could not make up his mind as to which to choose to go towards first and feast on, and thus starved himself to death. Had there been just one pile, he would have lived.Don't blame him. He was just being perfectly rational. There was nothing to choose between the two piles in terms of size, quality of hay or the distance they were from him to the smallest measure.But the result was that our rational ass could not make up his mind as mounting hunger kept clouding his ability to do so, and finally died of starvation.
Buridan, had he been there: Above all, it was irrational to starve himself to death. Thus although it would be irrational to choose which pile to feast on based on just one turn of pitch and toss, the ends justified the means in this case.So Buridan tossed a coin, and based his decision on the result of the toss. (Let us say it was a pile of bread, for Buridan is no ass.)
How do we choose which path to take when we know nothing of where either leads us to? Simple. Na?
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2 comments:
Hmm.. good post.
wow!!!! crazy thoughts.... nice post!!
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