If a tree falls in the forest and no ones there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Question

To you people who say 'Come up with an original question'-maybe you should come up with an original answer, and not be hypocritical.

No. It's because you came up with a stupid answer.

Anytime, MsJoinder. Or whatever your name was. Sorry if thats wrong.

Answer 1

This question is so old.

From a physics perspective, energy in the form of sound waves are generated when the tree falls.

However, from a philosophical perspective if there was no one to hear it then there was no 'sound'. Sound represents a human sense and ability to both understand and express the physical energy into what the brain recognizes as sound.

If doesn't matter if a beaver, bear or bird 'heard' it. They cannot express an understanding of what happened.

Ask a deaf person if it made any sound. They would say no. It takes a human with hearing in order for the falling tree to make sound.

Since you put this in philosophy and not physics, the answer is NO.

Now consider this: If no one is perceiving it, not only does it not make a sound but the tree does not even exist!

Answer 2

The question itself is the problem, and the cause of the seeming paradox.

People take a lot of things from it, but it is basically asking whether something exists even if it is unobserved. In that sense, the question is faulty because it states that the tree fell. Falling trees generally make sounds, so yes, if it is true that the tree fell then it made a sound. A better question would be, "If we do not know whether or not a tree fell in the forest, is it possible that it actually fell" or something like that.

In another sense, the question is about what it means to make a sound. For some people it is the vibrations in the air, in which case, if you get past the above question, the answer is yes. For other people sound is a perception in the brain of a human (or an animal), in which case there is no sound if nobody hear it. It's all in the question, not the answer.

Answer 3

Trees don't fall in the forest.

They don't just suddenly trip. oops, and they don't all.

The question is "If a tree fell in the forest does it make a sound?"

The difference is theat someone or something "fell" the tree.

The question is about dying in a war and not leaving a body. Were you none the less killed? Of course, you were killed and whoever killed you knows that. They came up with this question after the Civil War when bodies came up missing. And people keep asking the question like it means anymore than it actually does. It doesn't.

Something fell the tree. That something made a sound. That something heard the sound whether anyone else heard the sound or not. The tree existed, the thing that fell the tree existed, and you exist. It is all amatter of accepting these statements as true or questioning everything. your choice.

Answer 4

Oh, Puh-LEEZE!!!! Is there anyone alive who hasn't heard this question a million times before? Oh, wait. That's a question. I guess it's not a propos to answer a question with yet another question. So, my answer is, "Think of something original for which you truly desire an answer."

"To you people who say 'Come up with an original question'-maybe you should come up with an original answer, and not be hypocritical."

That sounds so "fifth-grade." Same as, "Your mama." "Noooo, YOUR mama." At the time I posted my reply, there was exactly one other response even remotely similar. So, "you people" consists of a generalization based on two responses. Could it be that you're anticipating a flurry of responses along the same vein? Could that possibly be because you truly do recognize how tired this question is?

Yeah, but I got two points. Thanks, dah-ling!

Answer 5

That depends on your view of reality, whether it is objective or subjective. If it is objective, it exists "out there" independent of it's being perceived, then the fallling tree makes a noise. If your view of reality is subjective, then it exists only by virtue of its being perceived, so the unperceived falling tree doesn't make a sound.

Answer 6

This and the "chicken or egg" question have
uncontroversial answers.

Yours is NO
and the latter, is EGG.

I'd offer reasoning but it's so obvious
I feel typing anymore about it is belaboring the point.

Answer 7

Maybe there arent any trees in the forest unless someone is there to SEE them.

Answer 8

Gore, think of something original, like if an elephant fell out of a tree........lol

Answer 9

Naturally. Physics operates regardless of observation.

Answer 10

Yep, the beaver near the dam told me so. The beaver makes the tree fall so he would know.