Consider the following philosophical puzzle. Philosophy Essay.

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Philosophy Essay
Introduction
“If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This is a philosophical puzzle that has been popular among scholars and philosophers all over the world. It is a puzzle that makes people question how our minds are influenced by what we experience, thus shaping our versions of reality. Both subjective and objective knowledge that we have may pose a challenge in identifying what reality really is. This paper will explore the question as an epistemological problem and John Locke’s response to this philosophical puzzle
Epistemology
The famous philosophical puzzle raises questions about how real your reality is. This puzzle urges the human mind to differentiate objective and subjective views and knowledge. Because of the human experience of hearing a sound when the tree falls, there is a tendency for people to believe that a tree always makes a sound when it falls, but the difference lies when there is no human present to experience or hear the event (Locke).
Epistemology involves the study of knowledge. This term came from the Greek words “episteme” and “logos” meaning knowledge and study. Epistemology finds out what the nature of knowledge is, and what is its extent. This puzzle is tricky because the answers will promote further questioning, especially of the reasoning behind an individual’s answer to the question because there is no united answer agreed upon whether the fall of the tree created a sound or not (Winchester).
The question can be addressed using two perspectives, namely the rational view and the empirical view. First, the rational view focuses on logic and reason more than the experience. In comparison to the empirical view which makes use of its own experiences to create a basis of its facts. With this said, witnessing a tree fall and hearing the experience himself/herself is a way to add knowledge and input for the empirical view.
John Locke’s Response
Before discussing the answer of John Locke, it is also important to dwell on his background. John Locke is a physician and he was able to gain a lot of knowledge through his own sensory experiences. This direct experience played a big role in how he formed facts, in addition to the system of testing and experimentation to form reliable facts (Walker). John Locke is also a famous English philosopher and sees this discipline as an area that unveils knowledge.
The human mind is an important aspect of philosophy. John Locke believed that human beings are born with blank minds with no innate knowledge or ideas, comparable to a blank slate. The experiences that we go through are what serves as inputs that influence and shapes how human minds work. These experiences can be classified into two groups depending on where it is from. Some experiences are from the external world, and some are from the inner world.
The experiences that are from the external world are concepts such as big, blue, and sharp. These are knowledge that is in our conscious minds that are gained through our sens...