Q&A: Color and Reality
Color and Reality
Question
Hi Michi, I’ve been thinking lately about whether color is something that exists in reality or not. First of all, if each person sees colors differently, then color is something that exists only in our consciousness. But if everyone sees colors the same way, then maybe there is room to think that color is a property of the light wave that exists on its own and we recognize it. But even that assumes that our consciousness is passive and doesn’t create the experience of color for us, just like in the first possibility. My intuition says that if we all see the same thing, then color really is something that actually exists. What do you think?
Answer
I’ve written about this more than once. Color exists only in our cognition. It is a translation of a certain crystalline structure of matter that causes light to be reflected at certain wavelengths. What exists in reality is the crystalline structure, but the color produced from it exists only in our awareness. As for the fact that we all see the same color, first of all that isn’t clear at all (the philosophers’ chestnut. Search for it here on the site). But even if so, that is because we are all built in the same way, and therefore translate the same wavelength into the same color.
Discussion on Answer
Search the site for: The Philosophers’ Chestnut
Where did you write about this?