Buridans Ass

There is a paradox named after the 14th-century French philosopher Jean Buridan, whose philosophy of moral determinism it satirizes. Although the illustration is named after Buridan, philosophers have discussed the concept before him, notably Aristotle, who put forward the example of a man equally hungry and thirsty, and Al-Ghazali, who used a man faced with the choice of equally good dates.

The paradox became known as “Buridan’s Ass” after Buridan’s views were satirized by writers who imagined a scenario of a donkey finding itself exactly in the middle of two equally proportioned bales of hay unable to decide which bale to eat. Alas, as the story goes, without an obvious reason to choose one bale over the other, the donkey remains in the middle, starves, and dies.

This tale is usually taken as demonstrating that there is no free will; and indeed, it is plausible to ask whether or not free will is possible in such a situation. This story has served as an engaging starting point for many philosophical discussions about the notion of free will and apparently, whether it even constitutes a paradox.

We really don't give animals enough credit. They don't have, nor do they require "Life Coaches" or psycho-analyst to exercise common sense. Buridan's Ass will go to either bale of hay, probably the first one that she looks to and resolve her hunger issue. It's humans that want to complicate and analyze everything. 

The paradox assumes the donkey will always go to whichever is closer - and she will - it dies of both hunger and thirst since it cannot make any rational decision between the hay and water. A common variant of the paradox substitutes two identical piles of hay for the hay and water; the ass, unable to choose between the two, dies of hunger.

The paradox predates Buridan; it dates to antiquity, being found in Aristotle's "On the Heavens". Aristotle, in ridiculing the Sophist idea that the Earth is stationary simply because it is spherical and any forces on it must be equal in all directions, says that is as ridiculous as saying that...a man, being just as hungry as thirsty, and placed in between food and drink, must necessarily remain where he is and starve to death.

— Aristotle, On the Heavens 295b, c. 350 BC