This is the age old question. The correct response is that you have to choose one or the other. It all relates to Optimistic or pessimistic stances in one's life.
While a fuel tank on a car is supposed to remain full, and be refilled, at halfway, it can be considered half empty. A glass, when in use, will empty slower than it gets filled (unless you're chugging...) therefore it can be considered half empty at most of its life, as it is in the process of being emptied longer than it's being filled.
To take this a step further, according to physics, the glass is completely full, half with water and half with air. (Half full to the human eye, half empty from the perspective of air content.)
Or according to a linguistic analysis, the glass is half full, because the word 'full' and the word 'glass' are related in the same contextual meaning. A glass is primarily filled and not emptied, so if it contains water, it should be considered utmost filled with something and not emptied of something. In other words, the glass is a container and not an "emptier". The same conclusion comes from a pragmatic and even finalistic approach the glass should be looked as it stands, and not as a part of a process of emptying or filling.
As our reality comes foremost from perception, and we make our own reality happen, in a matter of speaking, I would consider the glass half full. Mainly because we relate to the world by the way we construct linguistic manners of understanding it. As a glass is a functional object, meant to be filled, if it contains liquid, it should be analyzed in a perspective of being x amount filled.
Yes, my notes contradict each other. It's all perception...
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? The real question is, what is your choice, half full or half empty.
My choice, it's half empty.
AO
