Buridan

Buridan, Jean, was born at Bethime, in Artois, about 1295, and studied philosophy in Paris under William of Ollam. He became a keen nominalist, and is said to have been driven out of France on that account, but there is no evidence of the fact. He wrote ably on logic, and commented with intelligence, on Aristotle, especially discussing the theory of free-will as expounded in the Nicomachean ethics;. The simile, however, of Buridan's ass (l'ane de Buridan), in which the soul, distracted by evenly-. balanced motives, is compared to the animal placed between a measure of corn and a bucket of water, cannot be found in his works, and was probably an invention of his adversaries to throw discredit on his arguments. He died about 1360.