Quote:
Originally posted by kmanrox
iff a treebranch breaks and falls in the middle of a deserted forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it really make a sound? how do you know?
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[/putting on jeopardy hat]
This question is asked often by philosophy professors to illustrate the difference between Plato's philosophy and Aristotle's philosophy. Since Plato viewed reality in terms of ESSENCES--ie., pure ideas against which experiences are merely pale copies, the essence of something happening exists and IS REAL regardless of whether someone was there to witness it or not. In Platonic eyes, the treebranch DID make a sound since the essence of branches falling anywhere is to generate SOME sound.
In the Aristotlean view, experiences are RELATIVE--there must be an observer to view the phenomenon for it to be measured and to be real. While it's true that in the abstract, most falling things make a noise, since there was no one at the desert island to observe the falling branch to vouch that it did fall plus there are too many variables in estimating its sound--under this view, the branch DID NOT FALL.
[/taking off jeopardy hat]