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OP As is to be expected, there is more than one "pons asinorum"
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, about Buridan:
"Buridan was not a theologian. In philosophy he belonged to the Nominalist, or Terminist school of Occam, to which he adhered in spite of reiterated condemnation. He adhered, also, to that peculiar form of scepticism which appeared in Scholastic philosophy at that time, and which arose from the growing sense of the inadequacy of reason to solve the highest problems of thought. In his "Compendium Logicae" he developed at length the art of finding the middle term of a demonstration, and this, in the course of time (it is first mentioned in 1514), came to be known as "The Bridge of Asses", i.e. the bridge by which stupid scholars were enabled to pass from the minor or major, to the middle, term of syllogism.. Still better known is the phrase "Buridan's Ass", which refers to the "case" of a hungry donkey placed between two loads of hay, equal as to quantity and quality and equally distant. The animal so placed, argued the dialectician, could never decide to which load of hay he should turn, and, in consequencs, would die of hunger. The "case" is not found in Buridan's writings (though the problem it proposes is to be found in Aristotle), and may well have been invented by an opponent to show the absurdity of Buridan's doctrine. "
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted pons asinorum wwh 12/23/03 06:13 PM Re: pons asinorum Wordwind 12/25/03 10:32 AM Re: pons asinorum Faldage 12/25/03 02:07 PM Re: pons asinorum Buffalo Shrdlu 12/25/03 02:20 PM Re: pons asinorum Wordwind 12/25/03 03:05 PM Re: pons asinorum maahey 12/25/03 04:34 PM Re: pons asinorum wwh 12/25/03 05:59 PM Re: pons asinorum maahey 12/26/03 02:29 AM Re: Buridan's Ass Faldage 12/26/03 03:00 PM
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