Is the glass half full?
Imagine you pour some water onto an empty glass but stop middle way before filling it. Would it be accurate to say that the glass is now “half full”? Common sense and our linguistic intuitions might immediately suggest that yes, it is. But Keefe’s talk yesterday made me think of an argument against this common sense intuition. One can say that it is nonsense to say that the glass is “half full” because the glass is clearly, totally and determinately not full. The glass is not full and this is not something that is half true, or indeterminate or whatever. It is true, period. Thus, it is inappropriate to say that the glass is half full because being full is something that glasses either are or are not and since you did not finish filling the glass, the glass is just not full. It does not matter how close you were to filling the glass, you still failed filling the glass and, therefore, the glass is not full. It is not empty either, of course, but being empty is not the same as being not f...