[bwolf]

[quote=pest]

Originally Posted by "{TRC}ZenMaster":3ab60

You know you could just leave a tape recorder in the forest and find out.......

But by the arguements here, it wouldnt make a sound until a human heard it. The basic premise behind the falling tree, is it doesnt exist if a human doesnt here it. A deer could hear it, but that doesnt count right? The sound wave could make a leaf on another tree fall, but since we didnt hear it, it didnt happen? Its arrogance to suggest an event doesnt happen because we werent there to witness it.[/quote:3ab60]
this is my take: the proverb doesn't suggest it doesn't happen. it asks if it makes a sound if it wasn't there. in order to answer the question, we would have to KNOW the answer, and in order to KNOW the answer, one would have to be there to find out, at least when this proverb was first said. but now we can just use a tape recorder to find out, like zenmaster said. Bascially it is about knowledge and what can we actually know about an event that no one is around to see? We can only assume that the same thing always happens, even when no one is around.