Sunday, August 13, 2006

If a tree falls in a forest & no one is around...

Got this gem while googling, it's from a neat blog titled:

"My Secret Underground Society"

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If A Tree Falls In A Forest, And No One Is Around To Hear It...

Does it make a sound? I came across this long-debated question again while I reading a website. Then I googled it to see how people answered it.

I always thought this was more of a scientific question than philosophical, but from the answers I read, it's a question of "What is Reality?" Here's how I answer it (as brief as possible): No, it doesn't make a sound. It produces sound waves, but unless you have the ability to translate the waves into sensory information in the brain, then there is no sound. If a deaf person is in the woods and a tree falls beside him, it doesn't make a "sound."

I found a lot of interesting answers on the web. These are some excerpts. Some are very long and detailed answers.
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The comment I added to this post:

I agree with KarmaKity, I'm told that dogs cannot see colors. The sky doesn't really HAVE a color, not inherently anyway...

We only percieve light refracting off of the prism effect created by our atmosphere.

SOooo, we see that frequency as blue, but, and this is a big but: the sky isn't *really* blue (not to itself or any non human)

What does light/ color have to do with the damn tree sound?

Perception

So if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, the damn tree hitting the ground displaces air molecules... if you want to call them sounds... that's up to you


The trackback url for my comment in reply to that post is:

http://tsscusb.blog-city.com/read/trackback/311697015.htm

Oh, and I'm adding this disclaimer to all my posts from now on:

This article is for informational purposes only.
Please contact a licensed professional in your area
if you are in crisis or require mental health services

I'm not an L.C.S.W, but I did stay at a Holiday Express last night:)

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