“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” is a philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and perception.
History
While the origin of the phrase is sometimes mistakenly attributed toGeorge Berkeley, there are no extant writings in which he discussed this question. The closest are the following two passages from Berkeley’s A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, published in 1710:
But, say you, surely there is nothing easier than for me to imagine trees, for instance, in a park, or books existing in a closet, and nobody by to perceive them.
The objects of sense exist only when they are perceived; the trees therefore are in the garden… no longer than while there is somebody by to perceive them.
Despite these passages bearing a distant resemblance to the question, Berkeley never actually proposed the question itself. However, his work did deal extensively with the question of whether objects could continue to exist without being perceived.
In June 1883, in the magazine The Chautauquan, the question was asked, “If a tree were to fall on an island where there were no human beings would there be any sound?” They then went on to answer the query with, “No. Sound is the sensation excited in the ear when the air or other medium is set in motion.” The magazine Scientific American corroborated the technical aspect of this question, while leaving out the philosophic side, a year later when they asked the question slightly reworded, “If a tree were to fall on an uninhabited island, would there be any sound?” And gave a more technical answer, “Sound is vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognized as sound only at our nerve centers. The falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibration of the air. If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.”
The current phrasing appears to have originated in the 1910 book Physics by Charles Riborg Mann and George Ransom Twiss. The question “When a tree falls in a lonely forest, and no animal is near by to hear it, does it make a sound? Why?” is posed along with many other questions to quiz readers on the contents of the chapter, and as such, is posed from a purely physical point of view.
While physicists and good friends Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr were equally instrumental in founding quantum mechanics, the two had very different views on what quantum mechanics said about reality. On one of many daily lunchtime walks with fellow physicist Abraham Pais, who like Einstein was a close friend and associate of Bohr, Einstein suddenly stopped, turned to Pais, and asked: ‘Do you really believe that the moon only exists if you look at it?” As recorded on the first page of Subtle Is the Lord, Pais‘ biography of Einstein, Pais responded to the effect of: ‘The twentieth century physicist does not, of course, claim to have the definitive answer to this question.’ Pais‘ answer was representative not just of himself and of Bohr, but of the majority of quantum physicists of that time, a situation that over time led to Einstein‘s effective exclusion from the very group he helped found. As Pais indicated, the majority view of the quantum mechanics community then and arguably to this day is that existence in the absence of an observer is at best a conjecture, a conclusion that can neither be proven nor disproven.
We often discussed his notions on objective reality. I recall that during one walk Einstein suddenly stopped, turned to me and asked whether I really believed that the moon exists only when I look at it.
For sure! If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound wave.
If there be no eyes to see there will be no picture,
If there be no mind to read, there will be no feeling.
Yet once you have heard, seen, they will be in your memory.
The vibration wave exists when tree fall, but you don’t hear if you and tree were not together or in a different time zone.
If you lost your ears, sight you may still say you hear and see. That’s because you have mind, memory and feelings.
Once your mind, memory are gone your feeling will gone too.
For some painful reason, if one must forget and let go it’s feelings, the movie of
‘A beautiful Mind’
will show how not to remember in order to survive.
Do you really believe that the moon only exists if you look at it?
The moon exist above the sky no matter
you look up or not.
The question is if the moon exist in your mind or not?
when I look direct up or think at the moon,
But if I don’t lookup nor think about moon tonight, I would say the moon doesn’t exist
in my mind tonight.
Once you have been introduced to something or someone, it depends on your mind, your heart, you desire to remember or to forget you can imagine anyway you like, but that’s just imagination and not real. May not be accurate and
contain mistake.
Yet mistake can be right. And guess can be right or wrong too. but yours mostly right.
Yes! existence in the absence of an observer is at best a conjecture, a conclusion that can neither be proven nor disproven.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_a_tree_falls_in_a_forest_and_no_one_is_around_to_hear_it%2C_does_it_make_a_sound%3F
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” is a philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and perception.
History
While the origin of the phrase is sometimes mistakenly attributed to George Berkeley, there are no extant writings in which he discussed this question. The closest are the following two passages from Berkeley’s A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, published in 1710:
Despite these passages bearing a distant resemblance to the question, Berkeley never actually proposed the question itself. However, his work did deal extensively with the question of whether objects could continue to exist without being perceived.
In June 1883, in the magazine The Chautauquan, the question was asked, “If a tree were to fall on an island where there were no human beings would there be any sound?” They then went on to answer the query with, “No. Sound is the sensation excited in the ear when the air or other medium is set in motion.” The magazine Scientific American corroborated the technical aspect of this question, while leaving out the philosophic side, a year later when they asked the question slightly reworded, “If a tree were to fall on an uninhabited island, would there be any sound?” And gave a more technical answer, “Sound is vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognized as sound only at our nerve centers. The falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibration of the air. If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.”
The current phrasing appears to have originated in the 1910 book Physics by Charles Riborg Mann and George Ransom Twiss. The question “When a tree falls in a lonely forest, and no animal is near by to hear it, does it make a sound? Why?” is posed along with many other questions to quiz readers on the contents of the chapter, and as such, is posed from a purely physical point of view.
While physicists and good friends Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr were equally instrumental in founding quantum mechanics, the two had very different views on what quantum mechanics said about reality. On one of many daily lunchtime walks with fellow physicist Abraham Pais, who like Einstein was a close friend and associate of Bohr, Einstein suddenly stopped, turned to Pais, and asked: ‘Do you really believe that the moon only exists if you look at it?” As recorded on the first page of Subtle Is the Lord, Pais‘ biography of Einstein, Pais responded to the effect of: ‘The twentieth century physicist does not, of course, claim to have the definitive answer to this question.’ Pais‘ answer was representative not just of himself and of Bohr, but of the majority of quantum physicists of that time, a situation that over time led to Einstein‘s effective exclusion from the very group he helped found. As Pais indicated, the majority view of the quantum mechanics community then and arguably to this day is that existence in the absence of an observer is at best a conjecture, a conclusion that can neither be proven nor disproven.
We often discussed his notions on objective reality. I recall that during one walk Einstein suddenly stopped, turned to me and asked whether I really believed that the moon exists only when I look at it.
森で木が倒れたが、音を聞いた者はいない
誰もいない森て木が倒れたとき、音はするのか？
誰もいない森の奥で木は音もなく倒れる
For sure! If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound wave.
If there be no eyes to see there will be no picture,
If there be no mind to read, there will be no feeling.
Yet once you have heard, seen, they will be in your memory.
The vibration wave exists when tree fall, but you don’t hear if you and tree were not together or in a different time zone.
If you lost your ears, sight you may still say you hear and see. That’s because you have mind, memory and feelings.
Once your mind, memory are gone your feeling will gone too.
For some painful reason, if one must forget and let go it’s feelings, the movie of
‘A beautiful Mind’
will show how not to remember in order to survive.
Do you really believe that the moon only exists if you look at it?
The moon exist above the sky no matter
you look up or not.
The question is if the moon exist in your mind or not?
when I look direct up or think at the moon,
But if I don’t lookup nor think about moon tonight, I would say the moon doesn’t exist
in my mind tonight.
Once you have been introduced to something or someone, it depends on your mind, your heart, you desire to remember or to forget you can imagine anyway you like, but that’s just imagination and not real. May not be accurate and
contain mistake.
Yet mistake can be right. And guess can be right or wrong too. but yours mostly right.
Yes! existence in the absence of an observer is at best a conjecture, a conclusion that can neither be proven nor disproven.