Thesis The phrase “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” is considered an epistemological problem since it incorporates our intense epistemology and knowledge

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Thesis

1. The phrase “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” is considered an epistemological problem since it incorporates our intense epistemology and knowledge.

2. If a tree falls and nobody is around, it will not make a sound.

Introduction

1. This essay will analyze the phrase mentioned above to determine whether it is an epistemological problem or not as well as how John Locke would answer it.

2. This phrase dates back to the era where renowned philosophers would attempt to answer it, for example, John Locke and George Berkeley.

3. Upon researching and reading different opinions of several people, I support Locke’s notion that if a tree falls when nobody is around, it will not make a sound because sound waves travel by air thus moving in a pattern motion.

Paragraph 1

1. The phrase above is an epistemological problem since it incorporates our intense epistemology and knowledge.

2. It makes an individual question the reality of knowledge and observation by making the human brain differentiate between objective and subjective views.

3. As Locke (41) claimed, the phrase tests the ability of an individual to make a distinction between false and real ideas.

4. Transition sentence: However, John Locke's arguments could help attempt to solve the puzzle.

Paragraph 2

1. I support Locke’s perspective in analyzing this epistemological problem.

2. As Dancy, Sosa & Steup (260) presented, Locke once responded to incredulous arguments concerning the existence of the outside world by stating that no one, in their sober state could be very cynical to the extent of being uncertain of things he can feel or see.

3. Thus, human beings are aware of the existence of trees in a forest and the possibility of trees falling in forests.

4. If a tree falls, whether they are there to witness or not, they are aware that they will create or produce sound waves or impact.

5. This has been proven by science and research that when things fall whether an individual is there to perceive it or not, it will make a sound.

6. Transition sentence: This problem could be answered by analyzing Locke’s perspective on secondary and primary characteristics.

Paragraph 3

1. As mentioned above, sound is a secondary character that is caused by the primary characteristics of something.

2. Once a tree falls, impact waves are developed, and they vary in terms of the bulk or size of a tree.

3. The above characteristics are considered primary and they convey a certain motion to the brain thus producing these ideas.

4. Based on this, we could say that impact waves created in the outside world are not similar to the sound sensations produced in our brains. These are completely two different realities.

5. According to Locke, all the things that human beings perceive are secondary characteristics except the six primary characteristics that he listed (Locke, 59).

6. Characteristics such as sound only exist in our minds and what exists in the outside world are things, which form sensations in the human mind.

7. Transition sentence: These sensations are stimuli processed by the human body and brain to create ideas that we have about issues.

Conclusion

1. If a tree falls in a forest when nobody is around to listen to it, it will not make a sound.

2. There is no hearing or sensory apparatus, which will process this impact.

3. Sound is a stimulus, which would be created in the human mind when a tree falls.