Just what I thought.. but animals hear sounds too, and the question only says no humans, so there are ears to hear and brains to interpret it, just not humans
No, there is always sound. Whether or not something is around to hear it is irrelevant. If a tree falls and literally nothing is there to hear it, it still makes a sound because something would be able to hear it if it was there. It's the ability to be able to be heard, not whether something hears it, that is relevant.
You guys are missing the point. It a philosophical question, not a scientific one. It's meant to question the validity of the assumption of a persistent causality.
Essentially it questions the assumption that the world that is as it is perceived is derived from a world that "is as it is".
The question itself is unanswerable because if no one/nothing is there to experience the tree falling it's impossible to conclusively prove that it made a sound.
I agree with you Guest, it's a philosophical question. But as you said, it has no answer, so back to science. Sound is a number of vibrations able to stimulate the hearing organs. If no one nor nothing was around, there would be no sound, only vibrations
Sound is subjective.. Imagine I'm walking really quietly. You could say I'm making no sound. But if there was a dog there, able to read those lower vibrations of my steps, for him there would be sound. And if I was quiet enough for him, but you put a mole there, able to hear better, the case would repeat itself
Indeed. And we also have things like the Doppler Effect, where the sound of an object can be subjective depending on your position compared to it relative to time. Not that that directly relates to whether there actually was sound or not.
Well, yea, but in answerto harmonywho, yea, if something was there, it would be able to hear it, but it isn't, therefore, it isn't able, therefore, no sound
Essentially it questions the assumption that the world that is as it is perceived is derived from a world that "is as it is".
The question itself is unanswerable because if no one/nothing is there to experience the tree falling it's impossible to conclusively prove that it made a sound.