Many events in life are given false conclusions.

It's fun to spot the incorrect conclusions reached by society from everyday situations.

One of the dumbest philosophical conclusions I have ever heard of starts from the innocent enough question, "Is the glass half-empty or half-full?"

Whether you call the glass half-empty or half full, my first question is this...

...Why do so many accept the conclusion that if we find the glass half-empty, we are pessimists, but if we find the glass half-full, we are optimists?

It's the other way around!

Lets assume we like the fluid that resides in our cup....(by the way, that right there is an an optimistic thought, and a crucial aspect never even mentioned in the original philosophical question.)

If I like the drink, and I swallow that drink until only half-remains...(again, note the statement "half-remains"...a much more positive statement than saying half-empty or half-full)

....by taking note that the drink is half-empty, I can either fill or replenish my drink, or simply savor my drink until it no longer remains.......Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

But if I say the glass is half-full, I'm being flippant and in denial about the future state of the contents of my drink.

The drink is on a downward decent and can only be replenished if I take the first step, and admit the contents of my drink are vanishing.

Even the terms used in the Half-Empty, Half-Full question are incorrectly applied.

While pouring a drink into a cup, you would probably use the terms 1/4 full, 1/2 full, and 3/4 full to correctly describe the cup as it were being filled.

If I was pouring a drink into a cup, and instead said the cup is 3/4 empty, 1/2 empty, 1/4 empty as I filled it, that would be a correct assessment...but it would also be a pessimistic viewpoint.

If I then proceed to swallow my drink, and in between gulps say the glass is 3/4 full, 1/2 full, 1/4 full, that would also be pessimistic, because I have not acknowledged the real truth to my situation in relation to my drink.

When you drink, you are in fact emptying the liquid from your cup into your gullet.

So, describing the dwindling drink as 3/4 full, 1/2 empty, 3/4 empty, is the most accurate and truthful terminology...surely a more accurate and optomistic viewpoint than saying your drink is 3/4 full, 1/2 full, or 1/4 full.

If you believe that truth is more positive than spin...

...than you see the flaw reached in the in the long-standing "glass half-empty, half-full" philosophical question.

The denialists call us, the ones the who view the real state of the drink as being 1/2 empty, as being the negative ones for simply acknowledging that a drink's remains are emptying....

....while the self-proclaimed optimists believe identifying the glass as half-full is a positive statement.

Got Truth?

Why is any of this important?

The conclusion will always overshadow the event it attempts to describe.

Don't blindly believe conclusions others reach about any event that you don't know the details about....that's where most of the world ills come from....

....now, was the conclusion I just reached optomistic or pessimistic...?

You decide.

-Alex


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[This message has been edited by Alex (edited September 07, 2001).]