Is the glass half full or half empty?

Here is the test – it’s a classic one and we’ve all heard it, but for most of us, we don’t realize what the real answer is. Is the glass half full or half empty? Think about it for a moment and as you’re considering glass size and applying your own irrelevant perspectives to it, remember there is only one truth to the question. The glass is neither half full nor half empty; there is simply water in the glass. No other evaluation is correct since those choices require a perspective that allows for it. Optimist and pessimist alike must agree that whatever their answer was, there certainly is water in the glass and THAT is the only real truth. Go ahead, rage against that for as long as you need to, it will be waiting when you are done.

2 comments:

  1. I agree that there is no correct answer to the question because the half empty/full thing is an opinion; and unless you are a politician *smirk*' there are no 'correct' opinions.
    I would challenge your use of the phrase "irrelevant perspectives", however. I presume to get your meaning in that opinions have no place in science; it's either a fact or it's not. That is actually one of the things that always apeeled to me the sciences. The fact is perceptions can be wrong, they can be manipulated, influenced, misinterpreted, faked ect...But they are all we have. As a human I cannot see but through my eyes (and other senses) we are all victims of our own perception. It's Plato's shadows in a cave, all we can see are these shadows before us because we are chained in our corporeal bodies. Okay thats my cliff's notes version of my rip on the irrelevance of perception. I get that you are looking for imperical data, not a personal truth. I have digressed and am apparently prone to run-on sentences -bear with me.
    Now to your question, is the glass half full or half empty- full of what? What are you trying to quatify- the water? There is water in air, theres air in water. You cannot perceive the molecules of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen ect filling the volume of the glass with the naked eye, but science has proven they are there. Does that make the glass completely full?Science loves to measure,to label so if you want a scientific answer, state your parameters-if you want a short answer, don't look for a scientific answer to a philosophical question ;)
    Unless, of course, (cracks knuckles and smirks an evil grin) you want to get philosophical. I haven't had a good symposium in a decade since college. It would be fun to ponder the mysteries of the universe with another curious mind.
    Thanks for the invitation to stretch my brain a bit. Theres a lot of tangled threads in there.
    Cheers,
    Lilly479

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  2. Lily479....I think I may love you.
    That is all.

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