Albert and Barry’s different usages of the word ‘sound’ are both perfectly testable.
Once they’ve taken the reasonable and sufficient step of looking ‘sound’ up in a dictionary, and having identified the two (out of many) possible meanings they were using, then one can go off and test for the presence of pressure waves in the air, while the other tests for auditory perceptions in the humans (and/or other animals doted with hearing) nearest to the event.
They can later compare their results and Albert will say ’there was sound according to the definition that I was using (Webster : sound(1) 1a), while Barry can happily agree while saying there wasn’t, according to the definition that he was using (Webster : sound(1) 1b).
Having got that over, they will go off for a beer at the nearest bar and have a good laugh over that time-travelling guy’s not even knowing how to use a dictionary....
Albert and Barry’s different usages of the word ‘sound’ are both perfectly testable. Once they’ve taken the reasonable and sufficient step of looking ‘sound’ up in a dictionary, and having identified the two (out of many) possible meanings they were using, then one can go off and test for the presence of pressure waves in the air, while the other tests for auditory perceptions in the humans (and/or other animals doted with hearing) nearest to the event. They can later compare their results and Albert will say ’there was sound according to the definition that I was using (Webster : sound(1) 1a), while Barry can happily agree while saying there wasn’t, according to the definition that he was using (Webster : sound(1) 1b). Having got that over, they will go off for a beer at the nearest bar and have a good laugh over that time-travelling guy’s not even knowing how to use a dictionary....