Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-9nwgx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-23T01:50:59.569Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Colour be Reduced to Anything?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Don Dedrick
Don Dedrick*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

C. L. Hardin has argued that the colour opponency of the vision system leads to chromatic subjectivism: chromatic sensory states reduce to neurophysiological states. Much of the force of Hardin's argument derives from a critique of chromatic objectivism. On this view chromatic sensory states are held to reduce to an external property. While I agree with Hardin's critique of objectivism it is far from clear that the problems which beset objectivism do not apply to the subjectivist position as well. I develop a critique of subjectivism that parallels Hardin's antiobjectivist argument.

Type
Color and Color Vision
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1996. , 1996 , pp. S134 - S142
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M55 1A1.

References

Abromov, I. and Gordon, J. (1994), “On seeing Red—or Yellow, or Green, or Blue”, Annual Review of Psychology 45: 451–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, A. (1993), Sensory Qualities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davidoff, J. (1991), Cognition through Color. Cambridge MA: MIT.Google Scholar
Dedrick, D. (1995), “Objectivism and the Evolutionary Value of Colour Vision”, Dialogue XXXIV: 35–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, R. (1974), The Perception of Colour. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Goodman, N. (1977), The Structure of Appearance. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, C. L. (1988), Color for Philosophers: Unweaving the Rainbow. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Hilbert, D. (1992), “What is Color Vision?”, Philosophical Studies 68: 351–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jameson, D. and Hurvich, L. M. (1989), “Essay concerning color constancy”, Annual Review of Psychology 40: 1–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Judd, D. and Wyszecki, G. (1963), Color in Business, Science, and Industry. 2nd. Edition. New York: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthen, M. (1992), “Color Vision: Content versus Appearance”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 15: 46–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthen, M. (1988), “Biological Functions and Perceptual Content”, Journal of Philosophy LXXXV No. 1: 5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, E. (1995), “Colour Vision, Evolution, and Perceptual Content”, Synthese 104: 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar