Why there is no sound when a tree falls but no one is there

The following question is an age-old and popular one:

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise?"

This question may seem trivial at first, but it leads us to profound reflections on perception and reality. The common answer to this question is yes. And even if this is not surprising, it is strictly speaking wrong because it is not precise enough.

Alan Watts' interpretation

The famous philosopher and speaker Alan Watts gave an interesting answer to this question in one of his lectures. He explained that if no one is there to hear the falling tree, there is no sound. Instead, there are only sound waves. Watts' statement implies that a sound is more than mere sound waves; it is an experience that requires a receiver, which he explains accordingly in the course of the lecture.

Sound waves vs. noise

This idea that a receiver is necessary for a sound to exist leads us to an important difference: sound waves are objective, physical phenomena that exist independently of a listener. A sound, on the other hand, is subjective and only arises through the perception of these sound waves by a hearing being. Without a receiver that interprets these waves as sound, the process remains on a purely physical level.

Immanuel Kant's perspective

These considerations find parallels in the thoughts of Immanuel Kant. Kant argued that the properties of an object, such as its color, are dependent on a perceiving subject. Accordingly, an object is only "green" if it is perceived by a being that has the ability to recognize green. Without such an observer, the object only has the properties that make it appear green.

Kant made these reflections on the nature of perception and the relationship between an object and its perception, but not in the specific context of the example with the green object, which I only used as an example to illustrate this. Kant's philosophical views, in particular his theory of knowledge, can be found above all in his critical work "Critique of Pure Reason", which was first published in 1781.

In the "Critique of Pure Reason", Kant distinguishes between "things in themselves" and "appearances". Things in themselves are the objects independent of our perception, while appearances are the objects as they appear to us through our senses. Kant argues that our sensory perceptions and our minds shape the way we understand and interpret the world. In this sense, properties such as color would not be inherent in objects per se, but would be part of appearances, conditioned by our perception.

Dependence on space and time

Both Watts' and Kant's observations lead us to a deeper insight into the dependence of our perceptions on space and time. Reality as we experience it is inextricably linked to our presence and our ability to perceive. This means that our subjective experience of the world plays a decisive role in the construction of our reality.

Conclusion

The question of whether a tree makes a sound when it falls and no one is there to hear it is more than a simple rhetorical question. It opens a door to profound philosophical reflections on the nature of reality, perception and the relationship between subject and object. In this sense, it reminds us that our perception of the world around us is both unique and fundamental to our understanding of reality.