In a message dated 12/14/2002 5:10:07 AM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> > The survey was flawed because it did not have the correct answer to the > half > > full / half empty question: > > > > The fluid is gasoline and the cup is styrofoam. Your question is > meaningless. > > Gasoline melts styrofoam. That is the point. ;-) A question that cannot exist has no meaning. And a question with undefined parameters can be redefined right back at ya. Make the liquid hot coffee and some people will not answer until they know if it is decaff or regular. If it is decaff, then it is both half empty and useless. If it has caffeine then it is only half full and where's my other half? Try it with Napoleon brandy. To a non drinker, the question has no meaning, as the fluid as presented has no value. To a drinker, the answer isn't important--as long as THEY GET TO DRINK IT! >From the best Google match: Plato was an ancient philosopher who has greatly influenced the way men have explained the meaning of life through the centuries. One of the surprising ideas he presented was that somewhere in heaven THERE IS A PERFECT FORM OF EVERYTHING HERE ON EARTH. Every artist or designer therefore is simply attempting to reproduce that perfect form in their particular specimen. A chair is an imperfect imitation of the perfect chair that exists in heaven. Absolute total B.S. The perfect chair for a four foot seven inch tall hunchback is going to be different than the perfect chair for a seven foot four inch tall NBA basket ball player that has more money than ghod and wants to show off on how expensive his furnishings can be. The concept of perfection implies a value judgement, and different people will always have different values. The only way a perfect chair could exist is if that said single chair did not come into existence until some one person has defined his or her own definition of perfection. Now that we are running circles around logic, any chair will come in handy so that we can sit down and rest our brains. The above answer to the "half empty or half full" question is never the answer that the person that asks the question wants to hear. He or she expects a simple A or B answer. But every now or then someone should pull an Ender and poke the giant's eyes out. Epistemology was a fun course. When the teacher asked, "Do facts exist?", all you have to do is ask for a definition of "fact" that was not defined using human defined terms. William Taylor --------------------- I pun, therefore I am---annoying _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
