If a tree falls, but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Question

This has been a question that many have argued over, we know it fell, and we assume from our priar knowlage it made a noise, but if nobody heard it, did it really?

Answer 1

Of course it did. To think otherwise is illogical. I have always considered that particular question to be basically uselss. I mean seriously. That's like seeing someone dead in the funeral home and walking out and wondering if they are really still dead.

Answer 2

It's a deep question, and very few people understand its nature.

No, the falling tree does not make a sound. At least, that is a valid answer according to Zen Buddhism. It's complicated, but I'll try to explain it as concisely as I can. It's a Zen question, so I'll give you a Zen answer.

The reason is that sound has no existence independent of the ear that hears it and the conciousness that recognizes it. Without those two things, sound is nothing other than, at best, a vibrating mass of air. It is not a sound until a conciousness interprets it as a sound. In other words, the entire idea of a sound is nothing but a subjective construct that allows us to interpret a perception. In short, by definition it is not a sound at all unless someone hears it. Now, I think that this much is scientifically and philosophically plausible, but Zen would take that notion even further.

Zen would also appear to teach that sound isn't even a vibrating mass of air unless that movement is perceived by something concious.

In other words, nothing has reality in our frame of reference unless it is perceived, and the reality in which one lives depends entirely on what he can sense. However, perception itself is entirely subjective, so one of the implicatons of the question is to suggest that there may be no such thing as a truly objective reality. More accurately, the question suggests that if an objective reality does exist, it is not necessarily accessible.

If no one perceives the tree, it would be just as valid to ask whether the tree ever fell in the first place, and indeed whether the tree exists at all. The beauty of this kind of teaching is that it implies the existence of realities beyond our perception and outside our normal frame of reference. The primary idea behind posing the question is to suggest exactly that, and to suggest that the answer to the question is not what is important. Rather, it is the question itself that is important.

Answer 3

From our knowledge, it probably did. However, because we can't prove 100% that it did without being presumptious, we don't know for sure. Just because what we think we know something always happens doesn't mean it does. And even when we do hear trees fall, it doesn't necessarily mean one fell. Our own senses can fail us. Therefore, there are no real set laws of nature in the universe, unless someone who knows everything makes them. Oviously, only God knows everything, so we can't say anything for sure. Perhaps a different property that is only present when we are causes trees to make noise, therefore rejecting the law. In conclusion, it's impossible to tell, as with everything else. Did you get that?

Answer 4

It depends on how you define "sound." Basically, you have no proof that it did, so unless you say that, by defintion, trees that fall always make a sound, then you have no way of saying if it did or it didn't. You could claim that cause and effect dictates that it at least moved air, but as David Hume pointed out, this kind of reasoning does not lead to certain knowledge. The only way that you could claim that it definitley did or did not is if you make the idea an analytic truth.

Answer 5

Ok, the answers received so far seem to be more of a repetition, though traditionally accepted, and yet does not seem to really convince....
Why not try another route..... the question is about human being hearing it .... where do we actually hear ? Not merely the ear drums (ofcourse, the hearing capability has to function well), remember, when we are asleep, all our sensory perceptions get 'switched' off ! The teacher in school often used to tell us (though not in FULL awareness of the implication of the words !) " Be here ! where are you ?"..... these are possible indications to assist a person to look at the possibility that perceptions beyond sensory levels are within human reach , but only to those who try to evolve beyond , and consciously, by choice...
This is the message which the ancient masters attempted to indicate through this 'tree falling its noise question'...

Answer 6

it does make a valid there is in simple terms no1 around to pay attention it. In a small cabin interior the woods, 2 adult males lay lifeless. The cabin itself isn't burned, however the wooded area all around is burned to cinders. How did the adult males die? -that's the cabin of a airplane and the airplane crashed. Ida places her espresso into the microwave, as she does each morning, for precisely 2 minutes. whilst the microwave is going off, she opens the door, yet then closes the door returned and gadgets the microwave for 2 extra seconds. What stable could 2 extra seconds be? -To rotate the manage on the mug so she would be in a position to very actually eliminate it. A chicken lays an egg on the very precise of a slanted roof. Which area is the egg going to roll off on? -Roosters dont lay eggs. Beulah died interior the Appalachians jointly as Craig died at sea. all and sundry replaced right into a lot happier with Craig's loss of life. Why? -Beluah and Craig are hurricanes. What seven-letter be conscious has hundreds of letters in it? -mailbox Tom's mom has 3 toddlers. One is named April, one is named might. what's the third one named? -Tom (seem at how its says TOMS mom) 2 females word for a job. they're same. they have a similar mom, father and birthday. The interviewer asks, "Are you twins?" to which they actually respond, "No". How is this available? -they had a third triplet. (they have been triplets)

Answer 7

Yes it did make a sound.
Of course you can argue that it did not, but what you would really be doing is arguing that all the laws of physics as we know are wrong. Because according to laws of physics the sound was made.
Of course it is POSSIBLE that all the laws of nature as we know them are wrong, but this so far-fetched that it does not really warrant a serious discussion,

Answer 8

Of coarse it made a sound, Everything around it not only heard the sound but felt the vibration of it. A human is not the only sensor of sound.

Answer 9

That is similar to if a tree falls and hits A politician does any one care

Answer 10

Soundwaves would be there regardless of anyone being around to hear them -- unless it fell over in a vacuum.