Back up your argument with actual evidence.

I think that it produces sound waves, however with no hearing device to intercept those waves, nothing happens to them and they fade off.

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all the days were a sun-drenched haze
while the salt spray crusted on the windowpanes...

However, if a tree falls in a forest and no-one is there to perceive it, who is to say that the tree fell at all?

Perhaps a race of giants just replaced the tree with a broken one.

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Two hearts, beating as one;
Keeping time
Until they are no longer
Apart

Of course it makes a sound. Sound is defined as the production of sound waves, and when a tree falls, it will definitely make sound waves, there will just be no-one there to receive those sound waves in the ear canal.

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and victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace.

but isn't part of sound the reception of it and interpretation within the ears?

granted one half is it will produce some sort of sound wave that will penetrate the air but without a set of ears around to receive those waves it's useless and you're missing part of the equation.

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last.fm

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If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, nobody can tell that the tree actually fell or made a sound.

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Of course it makes a sound. Sound is defined as the production of sound waves, and when a tree falls, it will definitely make sound waves, there will just be no-one there to receive those sound waves in the ear canal.

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The question is: can you prove the existence of anything outside your consciousness, without first bringing it into your consciousness?

If not, doesn't it follow that your consciousness is reality itself?

In fact, is there any basis whatsoever on which we should assume an objective, material universe?

Does consciousness arise out of the universe, or vice versa?

You haven't answered any of these questions. If the answer was as simple as you're trying to make it, philosophy would have scrapped it.

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Pragmatism is all.

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Quote: from marshmellowman at 4:50 am on Oct. 30, 2008

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Of course it makes a sound. Sound is defined as the production of sound waves, and when a tree falls, it will definitely make sound waves, there will just be no-one there to receive those sound waves in the ear canal.

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No, it doesn't seem like you understand the problem. The "If a tree falls [...]"question is not concerned with the physics of sound waves.  

The question is: can you prove the existence of anything outside your consciousness, without first bringing it into your consciousness?

If not, doesn't it follow that your consciousness is reality itself?

In fact, is there any basis whatsoever on which we should assume an objective, material universe?  

Does consciousness arise out of the universe, or vice versa?

You haven't answered any of these questions. If the answer was as simple as you're trying to make it, philosophy would have scrapped it.

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winrar

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last.fm

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Quote: from MaryLin at 10:47 pm on Oct. 30, 2008

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If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, nobody can tell that the tree actually fell or made a sound.

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A hunter could be in the forest one day and see a tree, and the next day come back and see it fallen over

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But he never heard the sound of the tree falling down  

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I agree with you, in that it does produce sound waves which are unperceived.

However, if a tree falls in a forest and no-one is there to perceive it, who is to say that the tree fell at all?

Perhaps a race of giants just replaced the tree with a broken one.

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1) Well, the question is not "if a tree falls in a forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does someone hear it?" It is "...does it make a sound". If we define "sound" by its physical nature, then sound is a longitudinal wave propagated, in this case, by the wave created by the force of snapping wood. In this way, yes, it makes a sound, and if nothing --NOTHING-- is there to perceive the sound, then that is their problem.

2) come on...If i put a pencil on my desk and turn the lights out, does it cease to exist? hardly, to assert that it only exists upon direct visual or sensory contact is silly indeed --especially if you are proposing that a HUMAN presence is needed.

I would say also that the effects of the event of "falling" would effect the tree's environment, which, then being altered, effects the environment surrounding that, etc etc. So that any action can be seen to be "perceived" in the sense that "it's effects become noticed by something or some agent of perception".

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Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.It's the transition
that's troublesome.   --Isaac Asimov

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Quote: from gronk at 2:10 pm on Oct. 30, 2008

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Quote: from MaryLin at 10:47 pm on Oct. 30, 2008

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If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, nobody can tell that the tree actually fell or made a sound.

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 A hunter could be in the forest one day and see a tree, and the next day come back and see it fallen over

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But he never heard the sound of the tree falling down

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It's like asking if a deaf person turns on the radio, but no one else is around to hear the music, is the radio actually making noise?

Of course.