Who was the first person to suggest that a tree that falls in the forest with no one around is silent. Why wouldn't it make a sound?

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braille | 3 years ago view on twitter

No one first "Suggested" it, who are you George W.? Get your cliches right. It was a question fist ASKED by George Berkeley a philosopher, so it's not really all that hard to "pin down" unless your to lazy to enter in a search. He didn't mean does the falling tree make soundwaves he meant, if there is no entity there to inturperate those waves AS sound does it actually make a noise. A falling tree has an impact on its environment to be sure but if no being such as a human is around with the means to hear it, such as eardrums then it doesn't in fact make a sound. To a deaf person nothing makes a sound, if we were all deaf then there would be no sound for us. That's why philosophy is so tricky and constantly argued about, is there ever a right or wrong? The answer lies in how a person might interperate it. Which I suppose when taken out of context any philosophy can be deadly, look at the bible.

source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_a_tree_falls_in_a_forest

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irishstephen1974 | 3 years ago view on twitter

Scientifically speaking, if there is nothing around to pick up the vibration waves that sound literally are (i.e. your ear drum or recording device), the theory is that no sound is made.
Still, while there are also theories that plants themselves react to sound waves (studies have been done with metal music - plants seem to actually grow away from the sound source) this first theory has a few holes in it.

As to WHO actually came up with this phrase is a bit harder to pin down...

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