Imagine if no sentient beings ever evolved hearing. Now does the sound still exist? Do you seriously believe that there are subjective things called sound floating around in the air, just waiting for a mind to come along and grasp them? I prefer the more scientific approach of treating sound as the subjective transduction of vibrations in air particles. Once those air particles hit that ear drum, a transformation takes place. A transfer of energy from the air particles to the vibration of the ear drum and all of its intricate associated mechanism, which both interprets those vibrations, placing them in relevant subsections of frequency, which produce an associated pattern of neural signal from those specific transduction. Only once that happens, and that signal reaches the auditory cortex, does sound happen.henry quirk wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 10:50 pm vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear
can be heard
can, not must
As I see it: the vibrations that travel through the air or another medium is sound, full-stop.
Really, anyone here seriously want to argue that a deaf man hikin' thru the woods isn't surrounded by sounds becuz he can't hear them?
No, the sounds are there, he simply can't hear them.
Anyone here really want to argue becuz I can't hear a dog whistle, the whistle makes no sound?
Fido, if he could, would call you liar or fool.
It's silliness like...
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
...that leads to the nutjobbery like solipsism.
To treat the medium, I.e. the air through which vibrations pass, as the actual subjective sound as heard is neither logical, in line with any knowledge of how sound is produced, nor how the human perceptual and sensory system receives signals and produces the sensory signals.
But, we have already discussed this elsewhere in threads regarding naive realism vs indirect realism.
The naive realist position doesn’t explain things like mistakes in perception, mishearing, illusions, etc. But. You are entitled to your opinion. This is my opinion.