Cover not available
Part of
Colour Studies: A broad spectrum
Edited by Wendy Anderson, Carole P. Biggam, Carole Hough and Christian Kay
[Not in series 191] 2014
► pp. 273–286

The metaphysical significance of colour categorization

Mind, world, and their complicated relationship

In this chapter I approach the ancient metaphysical question concerning the reality – or otherwise – of colour. Certain philosophers (Hardin 1993; Pautz 2006) have argued that the existence of colour categories, and colour spaces which instantiate similarity relationships between the categories, give reason for concluding that colour is an entirely subjective and illusory phenomenon. In this chapter I argue instead that an understanding of categorization gives us strong motivation for rejecting any simple dichotomy between real / physical properties and unreal / psychological attributes. This undermines the extreme anti-realist view and leads to a novel argument in favour of a relationist theory of colour, according to which colours are perceiver-dependent but nonetheless real properties of objects.

Published online: 26 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.191.18chi
References
Akins, Kathleen A., and Martin Hahn
(in press). “More than Mere Colouring: The Role of Spectral Information in Human Vision.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science .
Berlin, Brent, and Paul Kay
1999 Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
Biggam, Carole P., Carole A. Hough, Christian J. Kay, and David R. Simmons
(eds) 2011 New Directions in Colour Studies. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruner, Jerome S
1957 “On Perceptual Readiness.” Psychological Review 64 (2): 123–152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Byrne, Alex
2003 “Color and Similarity.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66 (3): 641–665. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Byrne, Alex, and David R. Hilbert
2003 “Color Realism and Color Science.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26: 3–64.Google Scholar
Campbell, John
1993 “A Simple View of Colour.” In Reality, Representation, and Projection, ed. by J. Haldane and C. Wright, 257–268. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chirimuuta, M., and David J. Tolhurst
2005 “Does a Bayesian Model of V1 Contrast Coding Offer a Neurophysiological Account of Human Contrast Discrimination.” Vision Research 45: 2943–2959. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chirimuuta, M
2011 “Touchy-Feely Colour.” In Biggam, et al. 2011, 27–37.Google Scholar
(forthcoming). Outside Colour: Perceptual Science and the Puzzle of Colour in Philosophy.Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Cohen, Jonathan
2008 “Colour Constancy as Counterfactual.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 86: 61–92. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 The Red and the Real. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davidoff, Jules
2001 “Language and Perceptual Categorization.” Trends in Cognitive Science 5 (9): 382–387. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dedrick, Don
2006 “Explanation (s) and the Patterning of Basic Colour Words across Languages and Speakers.” In Progress in Colour Studies, Volume II. Psychological Aspects, ed. by N. J. Pitchford and C.P. Biggam, 1–12. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hanley, J.R., and Roberson, D
2011 “Categorical Perception Effects Reflect Differences in Typicality on Within Category Trials.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18: 355–363. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hansen, T., S. Walter, and K.R. Gegenfurtner
2007 “Effects of Spatial and Temporal Context on Color Categories and Color Constancy.” Journal of Vision 7: 1–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hardin, C.L
1993 Color for Philosophers. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
2003 “A Spectral Reflectance doth not a Color make.” The Journal of Philosophy 100: 191–202.Google Scholar
Harvey, J
2000 “Colour-dispositionalism and its Recent Critics.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 61 (1): 137–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hatfield, Gary
2003 “Objectivity and Subjectivity Revisited: Colour as a Psychobiological Property.” In Colour perception: Mind and the Physical World, ed. by R. Mausfeld and D. Heyer, 187–202. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hilbert, David R
1987 Color and Color Perception: A Study in Anthropocentric Realism. Stanford: Stanford University CSLI.Google Scholar
Holt, L.L., and A.J. Lotto
2010 “Speech Perception as Categorization.” Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 72 (5): 1218–1227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Mark
1992 “How to Speak of the Colors.” Philosophical Studies 68 (3): 221–264. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jraissati, Y., E. Wakui, L. Decock, and I. Douven
2012 “Constraints on Colour Category Formation.” International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 26 (2): 171–196. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kingdom, Frederick A.A
2011 “Illusions of Colour and Shadow.” In Biggam et al. 2011, 3–11.
Kuhl, P.K., B.T. Conboy, S. Coffey-Corina, D. Padden, M. Rivera- Gaxiola, and T. Nelson
2008 “Phonetic Learning as a Pathway to Language: New Data and Native Language Magnet Theory Expanded (NLM-e).” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363: 979–1000. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Locke, John
[1690] 1993 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. London: Everyman Library.Google Scholar
Matthen, Mohan
2005 Seeing, Doing and Knowing: A Philosophical Theory of Sense Perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mausfeld, Rainer, R. Niederée, and H. Dieter
1992 “On Possible Perceptual Worlds and how they Shape their Environments.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 15 (1): 47–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mollon, John D
1989 “ ‘Tho’ she kneel’d in that place where they grew….’: The Uses and Origins of Primate Color Vision.” Journal of Experimental Biology 146: 21–38.Google Scholar
2003 “The Origins of Modern Color Science.” In The Science of Color, ed. by S. Shevell, 1–39. Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nassau, Kurt
2001 The Physics and Chemistry of Color: The Fifteen Causes of Color. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Olkkonen, M., C. Witzel, T. Hansen, and K.R. Gegenfurtner
2010 “Categorical Color Constancy for Real Surfaces.” Journal of Vision 10: 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pautz, Adam
2006 “Can the Physicalist Explain Colour Structure in Terms of Colour Experience?” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 84: 535–564. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “The Real Trouble for Phenomenal Externalists: New Evidence for a Brain-Based Theory of Consciousness.” In Consciousness Inside and Out: Phenomenology, Neuroscience, and the Nature of Experience, ed. by R. Brown, 237–298. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Plumacher, M., and P. Holz
(eds) 2007 Speaking of Colors and Odors. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shevell, S.K
2012 “The Verriest Lecture: Color Lessons from Space, Time and Motion.” Journal of the Optical Society of America A 29 (2): A337–A345. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shevell, S.K., and F. A. A. Kingdom
2008 “Color in Complex Scenes.” The Annual Review of Psychology 59: 143–166. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C. C. W
1999 The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus. Fragments, A Text and Translation with Commentary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Evan
1995 Colour Vision. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Troost, J.M., and C. M. M. de Weert
1991 “Naming versus Matching in Color Constancy.” Perception & Psychophysics 50 (6): 591–602. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tye, Michael
2000 Consciousness, Color, and Content. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Valberg, A
2001 “Unique Hues: an Old Problem for a New Generation.” Vision Research 41: 1645–1657. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watkins, Michael
2002 Rediscovering Colors: A Study in Pollyanna Realism. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Chirimuuta, Mazviita
2017. Perceptual Pragmatism and the Naturalized Ontology of Color. Topics in Cognitive Science 9:1 ► pp. 151 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.