ABSTRACT
BETWEEN the two poles ‘awake’ and ‘asleep’ there is much room for qualification. If you were supposed to report whether someone is asleep it might be that what you observed would not be appropriately reported either by ‘He is awake’ or ‘He is asleep’. To say either thing might be misleading or even inaccurate. The following might be better descriptions: It’s a restless sort of sleep; He is tossing about’; ‘He’s having a nightmare. He mutters “Don’t hit me!” and whimpers as if frightened’; ‘He seems to be asleep yet on the other hand the light appears to bother him. He tries to shield his eyes’. In observing this person one would use what I called the criterion of behaviour. Someone who is tossing about or trying to shield his eyes does not perfectly satisfy it. But in practice we should not refuse to apply the word ‘asleep’. What we do is to make a qualified assertion that he is asleep. Aristotle says:
