If a Tree Falls in the Forest, and There’s No One Around to

Hear It, Does It Make a Sound?

By Jack Maden | September 2022

If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well, if by ‘sound’ we
mean vibrating air, then yes, when the tree falls, it vibrates the air around it. However, if by ‘sound’ we mean the
conscious noise we hear when our sensory apparatus interacts with the vibrating air, then if no one is around to hear
the tree when it falls, there’d be no sensory apparatus for the vibrating air to interact with, and thus no conscious
noise would be heard.

So, the answer to this age-old question seems to be simple: it depends on how we define ‘sound’. If we
define it as ‘vibrating air’, the falling tree makes a sound. If we define it as a conscious experience, the lonesome
falling tree does not make a sound.

There, the problem was solved.

The point of asking this question, however, is not so that it can be answered quickly and put aside. Rather, its
point is to draw out the strange tension between our two very different definitions of the word ‘sound’.

On the one hand, we classify a sound as a mechanical process that exists without us, ‘out there’ in the world.
On the other, we regard it as a private conscious experience, its existence entirely dependent on us. And when you
dwell on this latter definition, you realize it doesn’t just extend to sounds.

Everything we experience — everything we see, hear, smell, touch, taste — all of it depends on our sensory
apparatus, on us. Without us, our experiences would not exist.

As the great 16th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei put it: “ Tastes, odors, colors, and so on... reside only in
consciousness. If the living creature were removed, all these qualities would be wiped away and annihilated.”

Take away our senses, then, a colorless, soundless, odorless, tasteless nothingness would replace the world of
our experience. Without us, what remains?
The reason for our original question — When a tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one around to hear it, does it
make a sound? — is such a teaser, is because it hits on a deeper question.

Namely: If there was no conscious life, would the physical universe exist?

Our fast reaction to this question might be, ‘of course it would’. But let’s think about it again: if there was
nothing conscious, then nothing would be experienced. There would be nothing resembling anything we call
‘existence’. No colors, no sounds, no smells, no tastes, no touch, no sense of time, no sense of space.

Is consciousness more fundamental than matter?

Reflecting on this strange state of affairs, numerous great thinkers have concluded that consciousness must
be more fundamental than the ‘stuff’ that consciousness experiences.

It is indeed an opinion strangely prevailing amongst people that houses, mountains, rivers, and in a word, all
sensible objects, have an existence, natural or real, distinct from their being perceived by the understanding… for
what are the aforementioned objects but things we perceive by sense? And what do we perceive besides our own
ideas or sensations? And is it not plainly repugnant that any one of these or any combination of them should exist
unperceived?

On this view, it is absurd to say a lonesome falling tree makes a sound. For it is absurd to say that the tree,
without a conscious mind there perceiving it, even exists.
The Socratic Circle

● After grouping yourselves together in two equal groups.

○ Group 1 - Inner Circle
○ Group 2 - Outer Circle

● The teacher will give a short passage selection/ article/ topic to all. The group will be
given 10- 15 minutes to do active reading and note taking of the following (VTQ):
○ Vocabulary words
○ Thoughts
○ Questions

● After reading time, the Group 1 will randomly share their thoughts and even pose a
question. There is no pattern as to who will share first. The sharer has to stand up.

● Anyone from the group can speak after; the next person may add ideas, or change the
topic, or answer a question, or ask a question.

● If ever someone would like to share, the student needs to raise hand and ask the
confirmation of the previous speaker. If the student is not called then the student has to
remain silent until his/her turn.

● The Group 2 will just observe and write the names of the students in the inner circle, and
they will rate their sharing from 1 to 10 and may give their short feedback.

● After all the members of group 1 have spoken, then the group 2 members will give
feedback to how the discussion goes. They will focus on the flow of the discussion,
deepness of analysis and dynamics of the group. They may also mention the name of the
person who performed well, or the person who needs to clarify his or her ideas. They may
use the words “ I observe”, “I feel”, “I notice”, “I commend”, “I suggest” etc. . Avoid
destructive criticisms, or saying of “You are not”, "You Never”, “You fail to” “etc.

● After the group 2 has given feedback, they have to take their turn. Group 2 will exchange
seats with group 1, and will perform the tasks similarly. Group 1 will now serve as the
observer and will do their feedback afterwards.

● After the discussion, the yellow paper with the notes from being in the inner circle and
being in the outer circle has to be submitted to the teacher.