2007-10-08 08:48:38 · 27 answers · asked by Laura S 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
This question, written hundreds of years ago, is meant to confuse, after which the teacher will shape your mind around it. In some philosophies, nothing exists except what can be seen at the moment it is being seen. If the tree is not being seen, it can make no noise, since it would not exist. That begs the questions of how can it fall? The other confusing aspect is that of essences. Is the essence of "noise" in the fall and the crash, or is it in the ear of the beholder who expects to hear a noise when it crashes?
The answer is, yes it makes a noise. The noise is an essence in cause-and-effect. No effect is causless. When you hear a noise, what caused it? Your pretension to think the noise is in your ears does not cause it. Friction causes it.
2007-10-08 09:08:24 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
yeah it must do or does it got me thinkin yeah it does no wait it doesnt no hang on a sec if it does fall and nobody hears it how does anybody know a tree has even fallen i think no but then again yeah
of coarse it does make a noise i no cos when i fall over and nobody around i make a noise when i hit the ground so yeah defo it does make a noise what a silly question and heres me still going on about it i must be bored of sumthin hehehe
2007-10-08 09:01:25 · answer #2 · answered by lamby2572 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
How can someone answer this question, since NOBODY was there to hear the tree felling? We can only trust our logic, which is of course, that it made noise.
2007-10-08 08:58:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I guess it still makes that cracking noise, but it would depend on how big the tree was, how big the noise is...a little tree is only going to make a little noise!
2007-10-08 08:51:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes
2007-10-08 08:50:22 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Air waves are created, therefore creating the potential for sound (noise). Yet, if there is no device to receive the waves and register them as sound, no sound was made, only waves. If high frequency sounds are made that I cannot hear but my dog can, the sound exists only to my dog, not to me.
The question posed questions the theory of existentialism, ie, that which we perceive is all that exists, nothing more. Balderdash. However, when I die, you will all disappear.
2007-10-08 09:00:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
There is still the mechanics of physics when the tree falls, so yes- the tree would make a sound.
2007-10-08 08:54:48 · answer #7 · answered by ? 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No. It makes noise only when there is an observer there to hear it. Observing anything changes it.
2007-10-08 08:52:29 · answer #8 · answered by dogbreath 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I don't know. If a man farts and there is no one around does it still stink? Same principle. LOL
2007-10-12 08:06:14 · answer #9 · answered by karaokediva1960 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The other trees will hear. So will the birds and animals. The tree do not think we are important. It wil do what trees do.
2007-10-08 08:53:01 · answer #10 · answered by ssncnmks 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋