Consider these two sentences:
HE: The glass is half empty.
HF: The glass is half full.
Let us imagine that both of the above sentences are seriously and sincerely uttered in a context in which it's clear that the words "the glass" refer to an 8-ounce glass containing exactly 4 ounces of lemonade. Let's even say that (HE) and (HF) are each uttered by a different person.
You should quickly be able to see a clear answer to the age-old question, "Is the glass half full or half empty?" To answer the question, we need not even consider the perspectives, perceptions, beliefs, or feelings of the persons who uttered (HE) and (HF) in this case. Without knowing their perspectives, perceptions, belief, or feelings, we know that what is said about the glass in this case is simply true. It's clear that (HE) and (HF) both express a true statement in the case I described. In fact, it's not too hard to see that both (HE) and (HF) express the exact same statement about the glass. They are just two different ways of making the same (true) point. And, furthermore, it's facts about the glass and the lemonade that determine the truth of this statement, not facts about the speakers of these two sentences.
I realize that (usually) the purpose of the question is to make some point about the difference between an optimistic point of view and a pessimistic point of view, and it may be that a lot of people realize that, in such cases, the glass is in fact both half full and half empty. But, in my experience, people frequently state the question as a (strange) way of asserting some form of subjectivism or relativism - as though the fact that some are inclined to use (HE) to describe the same glass that others are inclined to use (HF) to describe somehow gives us good reason to accept subjectivism or relativism. It clearly doesn't. Right?
7 comments:
right.
You're exactly right, Dr. Senn. That's an interesting observation. I wonder if there are a great deal of similar "quandaries" that seem to affirm subjectivism, but in reality are just misdirection.
I'll let u know what i think after my anurism . . .
Richard
How dare you, Anonymous 5:50am!!
That wasn't me! I don't have an anurism! I may have an "aneurysm", but no "anurism"....
Richard
what's in that glass anyway?
lemonade, like the example states
Perhaps this debacle is only a problem experienced within the English language. It is awkward to say something like: "The glass is half." Half what? Half full or half empty? It might be more confusing to say: "I'll have a glass that size half empty and full."
It seems to me that the "full" or "empty" description may become more relevant depending on the actions being taken with or to the container in question. If someone is filling up a glass, maybe at the halfway mark it becomes half full. If someone is drinking out of a glass, since it is lowering the amount, maybe it makes more sense to use the "negative" version to describe that it is on it's way to becoming empty rather than full.
As much fun as it would be to think that this is an accurate test to determine whether a person is optimistic or pessimistic, I don't think it is. In my opinion the descriptions are interchangeable and the only time it comes up is when someone makes some cheesey claim that someone is being pessimistic when they are explaining that they are emptying a glass and it is at the half-way mark.
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