Word.ws English Dictionary

Buridan's ass

Buridan's ass proper noun: the hypothetical donkey in the context of certainly dying of hunger or thirst by being unable to choose between the two equidistant options.

Proper noun (1)

Buridan's ass

  1. The hypothetical donkey in the context of certainly dying of hunger or thirst by being unable to choose between the two equidistant options.
    • 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, [...]1985, Jean Buridan, Peter King, Jean Buridan's Logic, Springer, →ISBN, page 3
    • They remain like Buridan's Ass, in a kind of frozen indecisiveness, between total freedom and total regulation.2003 August 31, Tony Dermody <tdermody@iol.NODAMNJUNK.ie>, “Re: A Few Questions”, in alt.atheism.moderated (Usenet), message-ID <2lpcvpdh3zwc$.1mk81eq1qmfo3$.dlg@40tude.net>
  2. 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.
    • 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.1995, Ross Harrison, World, mind, and ethics: essays on the ethical philosophy of Bernard Williams, illustrated edition, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 23
    • 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.2000, Kathryn L. Lynch, Chaucer's philosophical visions, illustrated edition, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, →ISBN, page 90

Noun

Buridan's ass (countable and uncountable, plural Buridan's asses)

  1. (countable, derogatory) A person or organization who does not make a choice.
    • 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.1972, Sir George Edward Gordon Catlin, For God's sake, go!: an autobiography
  2. (derogatory, uncountable) Collectively, people who do not make a choice.
    • Not that they are Buridan's ass; they just do not believe in categorical decisions.1972, The Statesman, volume 22, page 76
    • 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.'2003 August 11, A Planet Visitor <abcxyz@zbqytr.ykq>, “Re: Where is Europe....Where is France”, in alt.activism.death-penalty (Usenet), message-ID <tc3ejvkr2qekfefd2fp90esv07vu8fqtcl@4ax.com>

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Buridan's Ass

Buridan's Ass

  1. (alternative) Alternative spelling of Buridan's ass (“the hypothetical donkey who is the subject of a philosophical paradox concerning choices of equal value”).
    • 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, [...]1985, Jean Buridan, Peter King, Jean Buridan's Logic, Springer, →ISBN, page 3
    • They remain like Buridan's Ass, in a kind of frozen indecisiveness, between total freedom and total regulation.2003 August 31, Tony Dermody <tdermody@iol.NODAMNJUNK.ie>, “Re: A Few Questions”, in alt.atheism.moderated (Usenet), message-ID <2lpcvpdh3zwc$.1mk81eq1qmfo3$.dlg@40tude.net>

Examples of Buridan's ass in a sentence

  • 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.2003 October 11, Alex Martelli <aleaxit@yahoo.com>, “Re: Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme”, in comp.lang.python, comp.lang.lisp...
  • Maybe we — and Buridan's ass — should often resist requiring a discriminating reason for rational action.2009, Peter Cave, This sentence is false: an introduction to philosophical paradoxes, Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, page...
  • Please do not tell me you are Buridan's ass, and have no opinion about this.2005 May 6, Doctor Make U. Feelgood <nappynospam@eatthlink.net>, “Re: Yom Hashoah”, in alt.activism.death-penalty (Usenet), message-ID...

Forms of Buridan's ass

Proper noun
alternative formBuridan's Ass
Noun
pluralBuridan's asses

Origin of Buridan's ass

After the fourteenth-century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes.

Questions about Buridan's ass

What does Buridan's ass mean?
Buridan's ass means the hypothetical donkey in the context of certainly dying of hunger or thirst by being unable to choose between the two equidistant options.
How do you use Buridan's ass in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is Buridan's ass?
Buridan's ass can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Buridan's ass in the dictionary

  1. Buriches
  2. burick
  3. buricks
  4. Buridan
  5. Buridan formula
  6. Buridan's ass
  7. Buridan's asses
  8. Buridan's bridge
  9. Buridan's donkey
  10. Buridanian
  11. burie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Buridan's ass (page history and authors); Buridan's Ass (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Buridan's ass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/buridan%27s_ass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.