From the Common Sense Problem Page

Naive Psychology

Trusting the Horse II

As an addendum to Ernie Davis's 'Trusting the Horse' problem, here's a real incident from my own youth. Black Beauty (in this version,a mare), while walking, develops a limp and is reluctant to step on her front leg, holding that hoof slightly above the ground. Her driver, who claims to be an expert on horses, tries to force her to lift her front right leg, on the grounds that a horse placing too much weight on a hoof is often a sign of a problem in that hoof.

Infer that the driver is a fool.

Contributed by Pat Hayes ( phayes@ai.uwf.edu), Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Human and Machine Cognition, University of West Florida, U.S.A. (19th September 1997) <

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