The problem of choice is the dilemma that alwayswill face a person. What to choose such that it has gone on advantage not to lose? The philosophical question, known as the "buridani donkey," will excite the minds of mankind always. In this article, we will analyze the meaning of phraseology, its origin, and find out where in the literature this phrase is used.
Background
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived infourth century BC, told his disciples and listeners a parable. In his Buridan story, the donkey is an indecisive man who dies of thirst and hunger. This person is in walking distance from food and food and does not know what to choose for his salvation. This story has a symbolic character.
In fact, Aristotle had in mind that ifa person faces such a choice, he must choose what he thinks will turn out to be good for him. Much later, in the Middle Ages, the philosopher-scholar Jean Buridan retold this parable in other words.
Buridan's ass problem
In fact, there is no problem.There is an ass, dying of hunger, and there are two heaps of seemingly identical hay. What to choose? According to the parable, the donkey can endlessly decide and in the end just die of hunger. Also, a lop-eared animal can simply choose one of the two stacks and begin the meal. Jean Buridan was able to formulate the choice question in this way. Is it possible to make a rational choice, if it is not entirely possible to calculate, what will this or that decision lead to? True, according to rumors preserved to this day, Buridan, telling this story to listeners, always asked if he saw in such cases that the donkeys were dying. Otherwise, all of Asia would simply be littered with corpses of eared animals. In fact, animals do not suffer from the problem of choice, this property is inherent only in man.
Or pan, or gone
In fact, the Buridani donkey is every one of usat least several times a week. How often do you catch yourself thinking what you should do in a particular situation and which of the two evils to choose? Very well illustrates this issue of the well-known anecdote about the monkey, who could not decide in any way to whom she should join - to the clever or beautiful.
There is no one right answer in such situations and can not be, because a person has his own worldview and world perception.
Philosophical interpretation
In fact, as philosophers say, the meaning of the parablenot at all in the problem of choosing "what is better". More and more globally. The image of the donkey is a model of determinism in the doctrine of the human will. It is believed that if the mind can not choose the best, then the will above human emotions will have a will that will select the aspiration for the sublime. If, by reflection, a person understands that both options are equivalent, then the will of the person in this case is no longer valid.
Before each of us at least once in a lifetime there isthe moral problem of choice. Sometimes the question can sound quite sharp. For example, what is better - to tell the truth and lose everything, but at the same time get a sense of conscience, or shut up, but then live with a heavy heart?
No man can stay in hisachievements, at the same time our joy and misfortune. On the one hand, we never stop developing, on the other - we can lose everything acquired. Buridan donkey, the value of the choice of which can become fatal, pursues every person constantly. There can be no right answer here, because the concept of correctness is very relative, and for everyone it has its own.
Physical and mathematical sense
Philosophers do not approve of the fact that "Buridan donkey"The efforts of Leibniz’s physicists have for some time been experimental animals of the exact sciences. But the gray lop-eared donkey, along with Schrödinger's cat, is today also a participant in thought experiments. The behavior of an ass in a given situation is predictable. So, knowing the laws of Newtonian mechanics, you can determine the location of any object (if you have some data). In addition, Buridan's ass is mentioned in the explanation of the mathematical theorem of Weierstrass. This theorem reads as follows - if a continuous function at one point is positive and at the other is negative, then between these points there is necessarily a point where the function is zero.
In a situation with a donkey, the situation is as follows - if the donkey cannot decide, on the right side he will have dinner at the haystack, or on the left, he will remain in the middle and die.
Ass image in culture
Not everyone knows the teachings of Jean Buridan, butstable expression "Buridan's ass" is known to many. Today, this phrase means a hesitant person who can not choose what to do. In addition, one of the layouts of the Tarot cards has such a name. In addition, Buridan donkey is found in the work of Dante Alighieri, Eugenio Montale, Günther de Broyne, Henry Oldie.
