IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST . . .

a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the woman

Isn't that the truth.

Re: IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST . . .

This is quite strange:
I noticed that the original post asks for thoughts on the absudities of philosophy, however everyone is posting about trees (no pun intended). Trees are not absurd. And neither is the sound they make, unless a known clown is present to interpret the noise.

So I ponder. What little can I know about our topic "absurdities of philosophy"? I know nothing of absurdity, so I investigate.

All things are categorically stated in google.com.
If google.com does not list it, then it does not exist.
Therefore, I went to google.com and presented "absurdities of philosophy" to find all known specimens.

What should google.com respond with, but a link to this very discussion thread! The original post is known to be an "absurdity of philosophy", in fact, it's the primary example of it worldwide. The question IS it's own answer.

But there is temporal conundrum. We have a philosophical question, whose answer is the question itself -- but only after a time delay, after being indexed, recorded, and cached days after the original event.

When the original post was made, there was no strong "absurdity of philosophy" as known by the ultimate authority. But over time, widespread indexing of the question created and produced the definitive answer that consists of the question itself.

Very strange. I've not seen this before. Usually Truth is static.
Are we now defined by our own "absurdity of philosophy" forum,
in a dynamically self-evolving language? Is this not absurd?



PS -- Sorry about the tree.

Thank you Diane, for asking me how I'm doing. You are
such a caring person! I don't really know anything
right now, at this moment, about ANYTHING. I don't
know what is going on with my body, or IF I will be
able to make it to the Cocoa Beach get together as
planned (I hope so! and fingers crossed) But, oh well
I am scheduled to have two procedures on Monday AM,
and I guess the results will determine my plans FOR ME!
It is simply out of my hands right now. And I may not
know until the middle of next week what needs to be
done. Then for the next weeks or even months, it
all depends on whether surgery is an absolute necessity.
But - about all of this mess - I won't know a thing till I
hear from my doctor about the results of my tests. There
is a mass somewhere in the area of the appendix - I just
had my appendix removed during last spring, in May AND
on top on all that, there seems to be something wrong with
my gall bladder - it appears to be not working at all now.
It was only about 6 months ago that it was tested & seemed
to be functioning properly - but now...it seems to be doing
nothing at all. I'm going to be upset if I have to miss out
on the get together down in Cocoa Beach.
We'll see, I'll just be taking things one day at a time for the
next few weeks.

Well now, Codeborg - everything seems quite absurd
at times - be it philosophy, politics, religion, science,
or any subject imagineable. Was it not, once upon a
time - that our very own ancestors were certain that
this world was indeed totally flat???
War certainly does seems absurd to me. The individuals
who are killed or maimed - are not even the people for
whom this is truly THEIR issue. They are just little people,
dragged along and used in a disagreement among world
leaders - about issues that most of them, or us (probably)
don't even comprehend.

Absurd Philosophy, Cruel World
Yes, so many things have great Potential for absurdity,
and I would hate to calculate all the Kinetic forms converted into reality.

I was just struck that asking the question "Do I exist?"
by itself creates the concept of "me" and "existing",
and therefore I start to actually exist. I am born.

Posing the question creates the thing!



. . . Can there be Peace?

truth
Codeborg, I didn't know what the theme of this thread was--I didn't start at the beginning. But my impression from reading the posts after the point where I entered the fray was that the theme was "The absurdities of life." After reading your helpful post I returned to the beginning but couldn't get past Dyslexia's quote: "a good philosopher is one who doesn't take Edward Abbey seriously".

Edward Abbey


Posh! I wouldn't listen to him... He takes himself very seriously (enough to be quoted), therefore he must be wrong. In which case, a good philosopher is one who DOES take things seriously. Like Edward Abbey, for instance ... He's always right!


I'm confused. Trees are much simpler than people.

i am notoriously guilty of not believing everything i say.

Gee, dys, you too?

truth
Dys and C.I. Yes, I suspect part of wisdom is the habit of seeing how amusing are your own beliefs and actions.

And, sometimes, my beliefs and actions aren't really those that are expressed -

BillW, I thought I was beginning to understand you, but now I'm at a total loss. ;( c.i.

Me either

Philosophy and Trees
Anyone ever cut down a tree,
just to hear if it makes a noise?
Mine never scream very much
unless it falls on top of me.
Then I understand philosophy.

I used to try eating foods that I hate,
just to see if I still hated them.
Some things never change.
Unless you put Wasabi on them.

Kind of like doing something really stupid,
just to see if it really is stupid, and precisely how much.
Because the smartest people know just how stupid they are.
And I pride myself on knowing everything.

Experimentation is the mother of interesting tales,
and my grandchildren will be well-pleased to hear
all the things I learned about. All over again.
Again and again. Curiosity never gets old.

Ouch! Damn! Ouch! Damn!
I like to get a nice rhythm going.
It keeps the sane and the serious away.
Not to mention my obnoxious friends.

The easiest way to avoid accidents
is to do everything on purpose.
Then you know the Grand Experiment was a success.
Please pass the salt ... Life is too short!

Having read the deep discussions of trees, falling, sounding or not sounding, I set out to set things out. I set out in a forest a tape recorder with a thirty hour tape. I left her slowly turning, wait, that sounds like something else. At any rate or at the present rate, I have this to report:

First six hours of tape: No sounds of trees falling. Several birdsong bursts.
Second six hours of tape: Several trees creaking, none falling.
Third six hours of tape: Birdsong, creaking, footsteps and one conversation between to unidentified individuals thus: "No, not here. There's sticks and things. Let's try over there." "It's a forest, there's always going to be sticks and things." "What?" "Never mind." More footsteps.
Fourth six hours of tape: Creaking, windsound, birdsong, slightly detectable sound of the tape recorder turning taping itself.
Fifth six hours of tape: Silence. Silence as deep as a winter sky. Silence. Silence as blank as a stare. It gave me such pleasure to listen to the depths of it.

While walking through the woods to retrieve the recorder I noted a nearby tree had fallen recently but as noted not recorded on the tape, further analysis is being done to determine the exact time of the tree falling to establish the parameter of it's demise vis-a-vis the recording time.

Whilst my companions work on the data, I am re-listening to hours 28-30 for the fifth time.

Joe

Truthfully ... that is the most beautiful thing I've read in the whole last month. The soul grows richly wherever there are empty spaces.
And you are providing them.


PS -- Any evidence of beavers in the area? I'm not sure if they have a method for felling trees silently, but it would seem most useful!

Joe, could it have just laid down to rest and couldn't get up?

Joe, Please count the rings in the tree to see how old it was. c.i.

ah, the thankless task of research!

Bye the way; if a tree falls on you, do you hear it?