The Window Question

[Rome101]

There is a room in a house with one window. The window is a single-hung vertical slider kind (which is important - it is not double-hung, when pulled all the way up it is entirely in the wall). The window is 1m in length.
The window had been moved so its bottom sits perfectly still 50cm above the hole in the wall into which the window was built.

Is the window half-closed, or half-open?

Explain and detail your choosing.

[Silver Guard]

Half-open. The natural status of a window is to be closed, else it would simply be an opening in a wall. This is not the case of whether a glass is half open or half closed, a glass is designed so that it may be filled with any substance. A window does not need to be opened at all, that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to provide a viewing position on the outside world from within. Therefore to open it would be to change this state.

The same could not be said of a door, a door is designed only so that it may be passed through, so it may be half open or half closed and the two are one and the same.

Yes, it's that time of year again, I'm back.

[Diamat]

Half-open. The natural status of a window is to be closed, else it would simply be an opening in a wall. This is not the case of whether a glass is half open or half closed, a glass is designed so that it may be filled with any substance. A window does not need to be opened at all, that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to provide a viewing position on the outside world from within. Therefore to open it would be to change this state.

The same could not be said of a door, a door is designed only so that it may be passed through, so it may be half open or half closed and the two are one and the same.

Yes, it's that time of year again, I'm back.

How can you be so sure? Isn't the natural state of a window to be open? I mean, why does one get a window to begin with? Obviously, there would be no point in it if it were closed.

[Juvenal]

I would say that the answer depends on the previous state of the window (which the OP does not appear to specify).

If the window had been more closed before, then it is now half-open.

If the window had been more open before, then it is now half-closed.

The reason I say this is because in English, the statement "half-closed" carries an implication that a closing action had been started but has not yet completed. Similarly "half open" implies that it was an opening action that has been interrupted.

Why is the implication there? Well it is because "open" and "closed" can be read as verbs as well as adjectives.

[Condottiere 40K]

Depends on your position, if you happen to be observing it from inside or outside the house.

If from inside, it's an opening to the world, if from outside, it's a sign the occupants are insulating themselves.

[Silver Guard]

How can you be so sure? Isn't the natural state of a window to be open? I mean, why does one get a window to begin with? Obviously, there would be no point in it if it were closed.

If the natural state of a window was to be open, it would not be called a window, it would be called an opening. That the opening has a handy plug for when it is not in use does not make it a window.

I would say that the answer depends on the previous state of the window (which the OP does not appear to specify).

If the window had been more closed before, then it is now half-open.

If the window had been more open before, then it is now half-closed.

The reason I say this is because in English, the statement "half-closed" carries an implication that a closing action had been started but has not yet completed. Similarly "half open" implies that it was an opening action that has been interrupted.

Why is the implication there? Well it is because "open" and "closed" can be read as verbs as well as adjectives.

This is an interesting point, and I agree it does depend on whether they are treated as verbs or adjectives, very well observed.

Depends on your position, if you happen to be observing it from inside or outside the house.

If from inside, it's an opening to the world, if from outside, it's a sign the occupants are insulating themselves.

The status of the window is quite distant from the personalities of its users.

[Rome101]

If the natural state of a window was to be open, it would not be called a window, it would be called an opening. That the opening has a handy plug for when it is not in use does not make it a window.

I disagree. Windows have a much more varied array of purposes and utilities, such as allowing the flow of air for example (which is probably why we don't use periscopes instead of windows).

I remember reading somewhere "The window is closing, from the other side it looks like it's opening", and I can't remember in which book. Does that sentence bears any philosophical meaning?

[Silver Guard]

I disagree. Windows have a much more varied array of purposes and utilities, such as allowing the flow of air for example (which is probably why we don't use periscopes instead of windows).

As an opening.

I remember reading somewhere "The window is closing, from the other side it looks like it's opening", and I can't remember in which book. Does that sentence bears any philosophical meaning?

That's a saying meant to promote optimism by suggesting to look at an issue from another angle, kind of a "when one door closes, another opens" phrase.

[Diamat]

If the natural state of a window was to be open, it would not be called a window, it would be called an opening.

Allow me to turn your argument around to show you just how relative this whole question is:

"if the natural state of a window was to be closed, it would not be called a window, it would be called a wall"

[Silver Guard]

Allow me to turn your argument around to show you just how relative this whole question is:

"if the natural state of a window was to be closed, it would not be called a window, it would be called a wall"

You can't see through a wall?

[Sphere]

Depends on if its a meth-lab or not.

[Diamat]

You can't see through a wall?

You know what I mean

[Silver Guard]

You know what I mean

No I don't, a window you can see through, a wall you can't. That's the difference between a window and a wall. Windows don't even need to have the function to be opened, but they must be transparent in one direction or both.

[Diamat]

No I don't, a window you can see through, a wall you can't. That's the difference between a window and a wall. Windows don't even need to have the function to be opened, but they must be transparent in one direction or both.

Exactly my point.

[Rome101]

No I don't, a window you can see through, a wall you can't. That's the difference between a window and a wall. Windows don't even need to have the function to be opened, but they must be transparent in one direction or both.

If I duct-tape my windows all over and can't see through either way, is it still a window?

[Silver Guard]

If I duct-tape my windows all over and can't see through either way, is it still a window?

I'd probably say it's a duct-tape covered patch of wall. If I was quite intuitive I might be able to notice it was once a window.

[Rome101]

What you notice is irrelevant. From a distance a small cow might appear as a ship - it still won't "mmmmeeeee". The question is - is it still a window? From your answer I see you are suggesting the answer is "no" (you stated it "used" to be a window, meaning it is no longer a window).
But to say that a duct-taped window is a covered patch of wall is false. You could still open it and see the outside world - it'd just not be through glass.

[Silver Guard]

Then it would be an opening in the wall, not a window. What you have essentially described so far is just a door you probably won't be able to fit through, which has none of the properties of a window.

[Juvenal]

I suppose what we actually have here is a false dichotomy, not withstanding the vague implications one might derive from the way we phrase the question in English.

Objectively, half-open and half-closed describe identical states at a moment in time. The additional meaning supplied by the choice of "open" or "closed" actually hints at past or future intentions, but it doesn't affect the state of the window in the present.

The OP gives no information about past or future, or the viewpoint of the observer. We have also been unable to find any intrinsic bias toward open or closed in the concept of window itself, hence the two descriptions have an equal claim.

[Justice and Mercy]

Both. If a window is half-open, it is also half-closed.

Hence that "half" bit.

Boy, that was easy.