Topics Color

Question If it turned out that colours had four dimensions instead of the perceived three, would that mean that colours we see now do not exist?

Accepted:
November 18, 2005

Comments

Suppose that colors have a fourth dimension to which we, humans, are not sensitive. As a matter of fact, I gather that this is true, and that certain birds are now thought to be sensitive to just such an additional dimension. I don't see why this would challenge the existence of the colors we now see. The colors are there, it's just that we're not sensitive to all their aspects.

But this answer assumes a sort of "color objectivism"--that is, that colors are properties out there in the world (certain reflectance patterns perhaps) that obtain independently of our seeing them. Suppose instead that we think of colors more subjectively, as existing in our minds--perhaps as qualitative features of our color-experiences. (I don't think this is the correct way to think of colors, but others do, and certainly some of our color-talk seems to embody this view.) If we think of colors this way (call them "subjective-colors"), then the subjective-colors of the birds--what it's like to have their color-experiences--are quite different from ours. I can't even imagine what it's like to add in sensitivity to that fourth dimension (even after learning a bit about what types of discriminations it allows the birds to make). Perhaps this is like the difference between the experiences of color-blind people and of those who aren't, or perhaps it's more radical. All of this raises interesting questions about how we might (or whether we can) compare experiential qualities across different types of preceptual systems. However, as far as I can see, none of this tells against the existence of our "colors" on this way of speaking--that is, against our subjective-colors. They clearly exist. My computer screen is loaded with objective-colors, and thus my current experience of looking at it is loaded with subjective-colors, even if they are three-dimensional.

Question If it turned out that colours had four dimensions instead of the perceived three, would that mean that colours we see now do not exist? Accepted:November 18, 2005

Question If it turned out that colours had four dimensions instead of the perceived three, would that mean that colours we see now do not exist?

Accepted:
November 18, 2005