What's so special about Buridan's ass?
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Published in Daily Trivia
The theory referred to as `Buridan`s Ass` states that an ass, faced with two equally attractive bales of hay, will starve to death because he has no rational basis for choosing between them. This allegory which illustrates the dilemma of a particular kind of moral choice between two evidently identical items, was presented by French philosopher Jean Buridan (1300-58) (though the animal mentioned in his commentary is actually a dog, not an ass).