If a branch breaks...

Tags: Philosophy And Debate, Epistemology
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Read Discussion
Reply to All

If a branch breaks in a forest and there's nothing around to hear it does it make a noise?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link/Embed

Type: Discussion • Score: 2 • Views: 1,889 • Replies: 22

[+1] - Noddy24 - 05/19/2006Not if it is a chip off the old block.
[+1] - tin sword arthur - 05/19/2006Can we start a one hand clapping poll, too?
[+1] - yitwail - 05/19/2006He: May I sit on your right hand at dinner? She: No, I may need it to eat with.
[+1] - ZWarriorX - 05/19/2006Just because every branch you have ever seen in your life that broke made a sound doesn't mean every branch that breaks HAS to make a sound.
[+1] - EmilU - 05/20/2006Technically, sound is the movement of molecules in the air when a stimulant is produced, what we perceive as sound is an interpretation of that act. From our point of view, no.
[+1] - joefromchicago - 05/20/2006Re: If a branch breaks... [quote="emptyhorizon"]If a branch breaks in a forest and there's nothing around to hear it does it make a noise?[/quote] Depends upon your definition of...
[+1] - emptyhorizon - 05/20/2006I replace "noise" with "sound". [quote]sound1 P Pronunciation Key (sound) n. Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in...
[+1] - joefromchicago - 05/21/2006[quote="emptyhorizon"]I replace "noise" with "sound". [quote]sound1 P Pronunciation Key (sound) n. Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a...
[+1] - nick17 - 05/22/2006Of course the branch makes a sound, if your saying it's a matter of perception, and you have to see it to hear it, then does it even break. If there's no one there to see it then how do we know...
[+1] - Bella Dea - 05/22/2006If a man loads a dishwasher and no one is around to see it, did it really happen?

Not if it is a chip off the old block.

0 Replies

Can we start a one hand clapping poll, too?

0 Replies

He: May I sit on your right hand at dinner?

She: No, I may need it to eat with.

0 Replies

Just because every branch you have ever seen in your life that broke made a sound doesn't mean every branch that breaks HAS to make a sound.

0 Replies

Technically, sound is the movement of molecules in the air when a stimulant is produced, what we perceive as sound is an interpretation of that act. From our point of view, no.

0 Replies

Re: If a branch breaks...

emptyhorizon wrote:

If a branch breaks in a forest and there's nothing around to hear it does it make a noise?

Depends upon your definition of "noise."

0 Replies

I replace "noise" with "sound".

Quote:

sound1 P Pronunciation Key (sound)
n.
Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of hearing.

0 Replies

emptyhorizon wrote:

I replace "noise" with "sound".

Quote:
sound1 P Pronunciation Key (sound)
n.
Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of hearing.

If you equate sound (or noise or whatever you want to call it) with vibrations through an elastic solid, liquid, or gas, and you further know, through experience, that breaking branches typically cause those vibrations, and you further know that this particular branch was located in a medium that permits those vibrations (e.g. not in a total vacuum), then the most that you can state with any degree of confidence is that the branch probably makes a sound (in much the same way that you can state with confidence that the sun will probably rise tomorrow).

If, on the other hand, you were to define sound as the sense perception of sound, then it would be certain that the branch would make no sound at all.

0 Replies

Of course the branch makes a sound, if your saying it's a matter of perception, and you have to see it to hear it, then does it even break. If there's no one there to see it then how do we know it's broken at all?? The whole world could be an illusion it which case, you are an illusion. Unless you take Descartes' cogito but then you have the problem of 'I'. What is 'I'. It implies human existance, if there is I then there must be He, She, They. This wouldnt make sense in an Idealist view, which i presume is what your getting at with the 'does anyone hear it?'. Also with the cogito, what am 'i' 'thinking'??
you could always go along with Berkeley and have an Idealist theory of perception. i.e. 'God is in the quad' or Mill's Phenominalism, completing it and saying that things exist when they are able to be percieved. The branch breaking is able to be heard (from mill's viewpoint, and mine) so it does make a sound.

I have my philosophy exam in 2 weeks Confused

0 Replies

If a man loads a dishwasher and no one is around to see it, did it really happen?

0 Replies

nick17 wrote:

I have my philosophy exam in 2 weeks

I suggest you study harder. Your post made little sense.

0 Replies

joefromchicago wrote:

nick17 wrote:
I have my philosophy exam in 2 weeks

I suggest you study harder. Your post made little sense.

Iwas just writing stuff when it came into my head

0 Replies

Bella Dea wrote:

If a man loads a dishwasher and no one is around to see it, did it really happen?

Was he loading it blindfold?

0 Replies

Emil.U wrote:

Technically, sound is the movement of molecules in the air when a stimulant is produced, what we perceive as sound is an interpretation of that act. From our point of view, no.

Well, what if a squirrel heard it?

0 Replies

is a squirrel a consious being?

0 Replies

nick17 wrote:

is a squirrel a consious being?

Unless the branch whacked it on the head when it broke off.

0 Replies

nick17 wrote:

Bella Dea wrote:
If a man loads a dishwasher and no one is around to see it, did it really happen?

Was he loading it blindfold?

Nice sense of humor. Rolling Eyes

And BummerMan delivers.

0 Replies

There is a difference between the branch actually breaking and the sound that it makes when it does. One is a testable reality and the other is not. You can go to the tree the next day to see its branch lying on the ground; it is not so with the sound.

0 Replies

If we were all deaf.... would sound exist?

0 Replies

Read Discussion
Reply to All

If a branch breaks...

Related Topics