After thinking about this for a long time I came to realise that there is more to it than the one dimension of ‘optimism – pessimism’ with realism in the middle somewhere. The other dimension is our level of confidence in our predictions about the future. This opens up a way to understand a perspective that is more hopeful than ‘realism’ but without the weaknesses of optimism.

I wrote about it in an article called “Optimism, pessimism, and open-minded realism”, here http://www.managedluck.co.uk/objectivist/index.shtml

I tend to look at things based on my past experience, which has been far more negative than positive. But past experience isn’t always a good predicter. I think optimism or pessimism are choices, but it’s not always easy to change them.

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@ Kathy, if our metaphorical cups aren’t filling up, I guess we should check for holes!

@ Alex, you don’t believe in the kind of optimism when you’re always complaining about stuff? I guess some people know they want to be optimists, but it’s easier said than done.

@ Andrew, that’s right, we should consider momentum – is the glass in the process of being filled, or being emptied?

@ Ari, I was lucky with the picture. I didn’t know what I was looking for (how can a glass be interesting?), but fortunately this clever pic popped right up. I’m all for shades of gray…an infinite number of them.

@ Nez, good point, we should consider other water sources! Maybe the glass could be half empty but we have a lot more where it came from. Or maybe it could be half full, but we’re in water debt to someone.

@ Matthew, just because half is an adverb, and it needs another word there. But maybe in some languages, this isn’t an issue. Half full of nothingness? How about totally full of halfness?

@ Evelyn, yes, we’ve got some very creative comments here. I didn’t realize there were so many possible answers to this simple question!

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But if you must decide, then I say that it’s half-full….of nothingness.

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I usually say, “It’s not only half-full, but there’s more where that (water) came from!”

But, if one wants to be clinical about it: The water is occupying exactly half the cup’s total volume.

Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful post.

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