Yet Another Answer to that Famous Zen Question
In How Emotions are Made , Lisa Barrett asks the famous Zen question: “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” As mentioned in an earlier blog , her book is about the “theory of constructed emotion”: “Emotions are not reactions to the world. You are not a passive receiver of sensory input but an active constructor of your emotions.” Barrett answers the Zen question in the context of the theory of constructed emotion: “A tree falling itself makes no sound. Its descent merely creates vibrations in the air and the ground.” It becomes a sound only if “something special is present to receive and translate them: say, a ear connected to a brain”. Here’s the connection she draws to the constructed-emotion theory: “A sound, therefore, is not an event that is detected in the world. It is an experience constructed when the world interacts with a body that detects changes in air pressure, and a brain that can make those chang...