Can things exist without anyone being aware of their existence?

a day ago by Ahmed to c/asklemmy

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deadbeef79000 5 points 21 hours ago

Yes. Because people are not the only observers.

What qualify as observers though? Or, how far divorced from an event counts as unobserved?

If a tree falls in a forest and scares a rabbit which a dog barks at which I hear... is that chain of observation enough to grant existence to the tree?

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victorz 3 points 21 hours ago

Does existence only count if there is an observer to observe it? I don't understand this notion.

I think about this every time I drive long distances, passing through forest.

"That tree over there is just standing there, all hours of every day, winter and summer, just waiting. Then I drive by it for 2 seconds. Then it still stands there, waiting."

Similarly I think of rocks rotating in silence around planets, stars. Or orphan rocks around galaxies, in darkness, and also silence. They're just there, for millions of millennia. Without anyone's knowledge. But surely they exist.

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