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It seems that we have finally arrived at an answer for the tree falling in the forest problem. The tree does not make a noise if no one is there to hear it…the noise is not an intrinsic property of the tree in the same way that color is not an intrinsic property of rose. We hear the tree falling only because our auditory receptors are stimulated by sound waves, we perceive the rose as colored a certain way because of certain wavelengths on our retina.

Personally I found the idea fascinating but also disconcerting. Is there then no reality outside ourselves? Let’s take the example of the tree. By our logic if we were not standing in front of it to hear it fall it would make no sound. Likewise if we were color blind the tree would have no color. If we were completely blind it would have no form. If our nasal passages were blocked it would have no smell. Does the tree then exist at all? It seems to be taking Emily Dickinson a little too far. Surely that tree still exists even if there is no one there to perceive it?

It seems like perception is just our human way to categorize what we see. We see something brown with a green top, it smells like a tree, sounds like a tree…so we come to the conclusion that it must be a tree. Whether our nervous system can process them or not—the waves and chemicals the tree gives off are the same---they are intrinsic to the tree. What is not intrinsic to it--color, sound, smell is simply the way that the majority of people perceive it. It is just an evolutionary useful way for us all to function together. Disability then really is a social construct. Color blind people for example simply do not fit into the majority mold…the waves intrinsic to the tree appear different to them…and so they do not see it as colored the same way despite the fact that it is still the same tree giving off the same wavelengths.