From Almost Empty to Half Full? A Response to Recent Commentaries

In his 2005 book, Death with Interruptions,which imagines a world in which people stop dying, Jose Saramago tartly describes the ethical debates that ensue in the following way: “The philosophers, divided as always between frowning pessimists and smiling optimists, readied themselves to recommence for the thousandth time the ancient dispute over whether the glass was half full or half empty.