I understand that the question is, if no one is around to hear it, did it make a sound?
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It really depends on how you understand or define the word “sound”.
One way to claim that “sound” is a pressure variation in the air (could be other media) that has a frequency between say 10Hz and 20kHz. So if one can say that such a vibration existed, then “sound” existed. This is an example of an “objective reality” way of defining sound.
An alternate method is to say that “sound” is a perception of the listener. Sound does not objectively exist but is defined by the brain. This is not an unreasonable way to think of it either.
This is why it is a question in philosophy.
You could think of other examples. Say you like pasta and find all pasta delicious. Someone brings a dish of pasta to you, lets you see it and then throws it away. Was that particular pasta “delicious” since you never got to taste it? Is “deliciousness” a sense of your experience of food or a property of that food regardless of whether you ate it or not.
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