If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sou

Question:Noone, includes inanimate objects.

My arguement: You cannot base reality on perception. If we cannot hear, feel, smell, see, or taste something, Does it make it real? And for the taste part, the object that CAN be tasted is real, but does the object have taste, if YOU cannot taste it? Certainly.

You cannot base reality on perception.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/If_a_tree_fall...

Read the article, and see how the argument dissects the word SOUND.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Noone, includes inanimate objects.

My arguement: You cannot base reality on perception. If we cannot hear, feel, smell, see, or taste something, Does it make it real? And for the taste part, the object that CAN be tasted is real, but does the object have taste, if YOU cannot taste it? Certainly.

You cannot base reality on perception.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/If_a_tree_fall...

Read the article, and see how the argument dissects the word SOUND.

This is not a question about acoustics.

A question that has been asked for a while is, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, does it make a sound?" In fact, this was the very question asked by Bishop George Berkeley (pronounced BARK-ley) in the 18th century. His answer is that not only does the tree not make a sound, but a) it doesn't exist and b) neither does the forest. If no one is observing something, it doesn't exist. His reasoning has been summarized like this.

There was a young man who said, "God,
Must think it exceedingly odd,
When he finds that this tree,
Continues to be,
When there's no one about in the Quad."

But of course, Berkely doesn't leave us there, because obviously there are things unobserved by humans that do exist. So this is the reply:

"Dear Sir: your astonishment's odd,
I am always about in the Quad,
And that's why this tree,
Continues to be,
Since observed by, yours faithfully, God."

Berkely was trying to counter a school of thought known as empiricism which emphasized sense perception, saying that if something can't be sensed through physical means, it doesn't exist. So Berkeley was trying to show how God can't be sensed directly and yet He does indeed exist.

yes, just because no one was around to hear it does it, doesnt mean the sound wasn't made.

it makes a sound. According to ur argument if u can't base reality on perception then if you don't see me does that mean I don't exist?

I'm not an expert... but it makes "waves" that don't become "sound" unless there is someone/something there with the necessary physiology to translate those waves into sound. Sound is the individualized and species specific experience of sonic waves. But its not "sound" without that vessel there to translate it into sound.

If everyone believed in your philosophy, we would only think that microscopic objects just recently arrived into this world because we are now able to see them and couldn't before.

rufonz is correct. It is what is called necessary and sufficient conditions for sound. For there to be sound requires not only the waves produced by the first object but another object possessing the appropriate receiver to translate the wave into sound. The tree falling is a necessary component in making the sound of a falling tree; however, it is alone insufficient in producing a sound without the presence of an audible receiver. Hence, the answe is "NO" unequivocably; without someone around to hear it, the tree falling makes no sound... only waves.

A tree is not an inanimate object...hence your argument does not make sense. It will make a sound, there just won't be anyone or anything around to hear it make the sound...

The tree falling makes sound waves, if there is no receiver to pick up the sound waves, technically there is no sound but hey! It's all a dream anyway.

Sound is a perceptual interpretation of vibration. We call this interpretation hearing.

If there is no one there to hear it, there is no sound. There is just a vibration that would have been interpreted as sound had there been any one there to do that.

Love and blessings Don

It makes a sound.

It does not make a noise.

Yes. It disturbs the air while falling and at the time of fall.

If it falls near an encampment of deaf people, does it make a sound?

Yes. For the same reasons.