Buridan's Ass
A donkey stands exactly halfway between two identical bales of hay. With no reason on earth to prefer either, does it starve?
c. 1340 (the attribution; the example is far older)14 min read
Dutch rationalism
Baruch Spinoza
1632 – 1677
Dutch philosopher and lens-grinder. In the scholium to Ethics II.49 he takes up the man suspended in perfect equilibrium and simply concedes the point: such a person would indeed die of hunger and thirst, and should be reckoned an ass rather than a man. He uses the case to attack the idea of a free-floating faculty of will.