more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 16478

[catalogued under 20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism]

Full Idea

I once, to test the story of Buridan's Ass, put a cat exactly half-way between her two kittens, both too young to move: for a time she found the disjunction paralysing.

Gist of Idea

A mother cat is paralysed if equidistant between two needy kittens

Source

Bertrand Russell (An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth [1940], 5)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth' [Penguin 1967], p.79


A Reaction

Buridan's Ass is said to have starved between two equal piles of hay. Reason can't be the tie-breaker; reason obviously says 'choose one!', but intellectualism demands a reason for the one you choose.