Jean Buridan

Jean Buridan (1300-1358), French Scholastic philosopher, who held a theory of determinism, contending that the will must choose the greater good. Born in Bethune, Buridan was educated at the University of Paris, where he studied with the English Scholastic philosopher William of Ockham. After his studies were completed, he was appointed professor of philosophy, and later rector, at the same university. Buridan is traditionally, but probably incorrectly, associated with a philosophical dilemma of moral choice called “Buridan's ass.” In the problem an ass starves to death between two equally alluring and equidistant bundles of hay because it has no rational basis for preferring one bundle over the other.