if a tree falls

[David_Simmons]

@Q.E.D.

Your, dammit, your!. Teach me to post pre-coffee. :smack:

Surely you don’t mean that you need chemicals to function properly.

[Johnny_L.A]

If Helen Keller fell in a forest…

Eh. I got nothin’.

[Triskadecamus]

If a tree falls in the forest, and lands on an existentialist, would anyone care?

[Hampshire]

Does the Pope shit in the woods?

-Steve Martin

[Larry_Borgia]

[sub]eeeee[/sub]eeeee*eeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAA*CRASH!!!

[Cervaise]

If D.B. Cooper falls in a forest, and no one is there to meet him, what happens to all the money?

[Sequent]

@CJJ*

Just where and in what context did the “tree falling” question arise? Did someone use it to make a certain philosophical point?

I always wondered about this myself. I’ve heard it attributed to Aquinas, but I believe that’s erroneous. According to this source:

Dr. George Berkeley, later Bishop of Cloyne (Ireland). Bishop Berkeley spent three years in Newport and was much indebted to the members of the congregation. It was Bishop Berkeley who posed the famous question: “If a tree falls in the forest, but there is no one to hear, is there sound?”. Local legend has it that the Bishop first formulated his query while meditating in his favorite retreat, a niche (still called “Bishop’s Seat”) in the craggy rocks overlooking Sachuest Beach.

[Sequent]

I’ve found another source which kind of attributes the question to Berkeley. I suppose if one concludes that Berkeley is at least responsible for the question’s modern popularity, the next question would be: did he in fact originate the example?

[Ponder_Stibbons]

In case anyone’s wondering about the “one hand clapping” issue, I believe this has a definitive answer.

[Anaamika]

What do you mean no one? There’s always *someone * around to hear it, birds, chipmunks, etc.