If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? In order to answer this question, we must first understand John Locke and his view on epistemology in order to get a clear meaning of this philosophical puzzle.
First, what is epistemology? Epistemology is one of the four main branches of philosophy along with metaphysics, logic, and ethics. It is the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. It is important, because it influences how philosophers frame their research in order to discover knowledge. John Locke seems to follow a vision philosophy, in which the only concepts we experience right away are thoughts. Epistemology in Locke’s perspective is a clear contrast between experience and simple possible thought or conviction. Locke places a greater emphasis on direct sensory perception than reasoning and reason in his epistemological research. Direct experience, rather than reasoning and reason, he claims, is a more credible source of understanding. Locke argues that human beings have no inborn, or innate, ideas in their mind at birth. When our mind first comes into existences, it is a blank slate, a “tabula rasa”. This is a theory we are born with no mental content and our experiences and knowledge will write all that we will ever know.
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According to Locke, there are two types of experiences, outer experience or sensation and inner experience or reflection. Outer experiences are those that enter our mind through our senses such as smell or hearing. He refers to these ideas as “the operation of the mind about its other ideas.” Sight gives us ideas of colors, and hearing gives us the idea of sound. The more complicated experiences are those that are inner. These ideas derive from memory, imagination, desire, doubt, judgement, and choice. He assumes that we should observe or feel our minds doing actions, and that when we do, we get ideas of reflection. These are not to be confused with automatic instinctual behaviors we as humans have such as fear induced aggression, sleep, or eating. (“Ways of Knowing: How We Choose What We Believe,” 2020)
Locke then breaks these ideas down to primary and secondary properties these can be described as the differences in the ideas that they make in our mind. Primary properties are those that mirror the analogous qualities in the object that caused us to have those ideas. Secondary properties of objects produce ideas in our mind that do not mirror the corresponding qualities in an object that produces those ideas in our mind. Examples of this would be a blue rectangle. The shape is primary while the color is secondary. Locke says, sensation of rectangularity resembles the property in the object (it being a rectangle), that produces this sensation, but the sensation of blueness does not resemble the property in the object. (“Locke on Primary and Secondary Qualities,” n.d.). Locke then proceeds to talk about qualities, and how sensations in the mind are caused by the quality in an object. A quality is the ability of a thing to elicit an idea in the mind. A quality is a power in a thing to trigger an idea in a mind, rather than a thing itself.
The discussion of external world experience by Locke brings us face to face with many of Locke's core philosophical themes. External world experience, according to Locke, is sensitive knowledge of actual life. That is, it is the awareness that some entity exists apart from our mind and has an effect on our mind by causing it to produce those ideas. This understanding comes from sensory experience.
Now that a foundation is built on the Locke’s philosophy on epistemology, we have a better understanding on how we would answer the one of the most debated about philosophical puzzles. A tree in the forest will always disturb air waves regardless of if anyone is there to hear it. This is called realism. This is the doctrine that matter as the object of perception has real existence and is neither reducible to universal mind or spirit nor dependent on a perceiving agent. If no one is present when the tree falls there will be no one to witness the auditory noise that is made from the fall. There are different views in the way people solve this puzzle. Locke said, “Now the two ideas that in this case are perceived to agree and do thereby produce knowledge are the idea of actual sensation (which is an action whereof I have a clear and distinct idea) and the idea of actual existence of something without me that causes that sensation”. (Connolly, n.d.). The answer to this puzzle is both yes and no. Dr. George Berkley, a philosopher, says it does make sound because God heard it. A different viewpoint is of the sensation of a falling tree is a human experience which involves a sound vibration to come in contact with an ear it makes no sound. The last way to view this puzzle is that it made a sound even though no one heard it and we know what a falling tree sounds like because we have solid evidence that a tree dropped, so we assume it made the sound we would imagine.
The confusion lies within the word “sound”. He believes that sound is a sensation in a mind. In this puzzle we use this word to describe both airwaves and to describe an audible sensation. These are two different entities because a tree a falling will always make a sound this is one way of using the word and the other doesn’t cause any type of sound because there are no ears to witness this sound.
Therefore, John Locke would say this puzzle could be solved by using secondary qualities that derive from primary qualities. If someone has already heard a tree falling, they remember the sound it made, so they will automatically assume it made a sound regardless of them not being physically present. Since our senses agree that a falling tree produces a sound when we are present, our senses, in combination with our rationality, the fourth type of simple concept he mentions, can confidently assume that a tree falling in a forest makes a sound in all cases.
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