Buridan, Jean (by

r`ĭdən, Fr. zhäN bürēdäN`), d. c.1358, French scholastic philosopher. Rector of the Univ. of Paris, he was a follower of William of Occam and a nominalist. Buridan promoted the theory of impetus, arguing that a projectile continues in motion not, as Aristotle held, because it is supported by the surrounding air, but because of the force transmitted to it by the object that launched it. Buridan's theory of the will was that choice is determined by the greater good and that the freedom a person possesses is the power to suspend choice and reconsider motives for action. Traditionally but almost certainly erroneously he is supposed to have used the simile of "Buridan's ass"—an unfortunate animal midway between two identical bundles of hay and starving to death because it cannot choose between them.

Buridan, Jean

(born 1300, Béthune?, France—died 1358) French philosopher, logician, and scientific theorist. He studied under William of Ockham at the University of Paris and later taught there. According to his modified version of determinism, though one must choose what presents itself as the greater good, the will is free to delay reason's judgment by suggesting a more thorough inquiry into the worth of one's motives. The dilemma of a particular kind of moral choice, between two evidently identical alternatives, is illustrated by the celebrated allegory of “Buridan's ass.” Among his achievements in mechanics was a revision of Aristotle's theory of motion; he developed a theory of impetus by which the mover imparts to the moved a power, proportional to the former's speed and mass, which keeps it moving. His studies of optical images prefigured modern developments in cinematics. In logic he explicated the doctrines of Aristotle and Peter of Spain (c. 1210–77). His works include Summula de dialecta (1487) and Consequentie (1493).