The problem of colour

Colors are a familiar and important feature of our experience of the world. Color helps us to distinguish and identify things in our environment: for instance, the red of a berry not only helps us to see the berry against the green foliage, but it also allows us to identify it as a berry. Colours perform a wide variety of symbolic functions: red means stop, green means go, white means surrender...

"But although colours are a familiar feature of the world that we perceive, they are also deeply puzzling. What exactly are colours? Do colours even exist?...However, philosophers and scientists have long thought that colours are not what they seem. There are two main reasons for this...

Colors are a familiar and important feature of our experience of the world. Color helps us to distinguish and identify things in our environment: for instance, the red of a berry not only helps us to see the berry against the green foliage, but it also allows us to identify it as a berry. Colours perform a wide variety of symbolic functions: red means stop, green means go, white means surrender...

"But although colours are a familiar feature of the world that we perceive, they are also deeply puzzling. What exactly are colours? Do colours even exist?...However, philosophers and scientists have long thought that colours are not what they seem. There are two main reasons for this...