Definitions of Color

[EyeMNathan]

Ever thought about this?

Let's say there is a blue flower.

Two people look at this flower.

They both say it's a blue flower. But what does "blue" look like for each person? What if what they call "blue" looks like a different color?

How could you ever tell if you are seeing the same color, in the same way as everyone else? The only way you have to describe it is to say "That's blue." And the other person will agree.

 

[dsfunk]

have had that conversation many times while in an altered state

 

[SSP]

My take on this: It really doesnt matter. Lets say person 1 sees blue as pink and person 2 sees blue as purple. When person 1 ask person 2 to make a blue flag, he will make a purple flag, but to both of them it is blue since they are conditioned to think this color is blue.

I don't know if that made any sence to anyone else.

 

[mobobuff]

Colors will always look slightly different to individual people. Hell, my left eye perceives some colors differently than my right. For instance, every light color appears slightly yellower and less vibrant in my left eye, but my right shows the environment to be brighter with more pure whites.

Also, I often have arguments with my lady friend over neon greens and neon yellows. I often claim that something is neon green when she plainly recognizes it as a bright yellow. And it's not semantics, I actually SEE it as having green in it, but she claims they never do. I don't know which of us has the deficiency there.

The eyeball/optic system is an amazing thing and I love studying it.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: SSP
My take on this: It really doesnt matter. Lets say person 1 sees blue as pink and person 2 sees blue as purple. When person 1 ask person 2 to make a blue flag, he will make a purple flag, but to both of them it is blue since they are conditioned to think this color is blue.

I don't know if that made any sence to anyone else.

Makes sense. I feel that most people should perceive the same color because human brains should work pretty similarly.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: SSP
My take on this: It really doesnt matter. Lets say person 1 sees blue as pink and person 2 sees blue as purple. When person 1 ask person 2 to make a blue flag, he will make a purple flag, but to both of them it is blue since they are conditioned to think this color is blue.

I don't know if that made any sence to anyone else.

I think I get what you're saying, but I don't know if it would work with pink and purple..... maybe violet and purple or something?

 

[EyeMNathan]

Well, clearly the "lightness" or "darkness" of a color is uniform across most human brains, because that would be easy to describe.

 

[Amplifier]

No, we all see the same blue.

 

[SSP]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: SSP
My take on this: It really doesnt matter. Lets say person 1 sees blue as pink and person 2 sees blue as purple. When person 1 ask person 2 to make a blue flag, he will make a purple flag, but to both of them it is blue since they are conditioned to think this color is blue.

I don't know if that made any sence to anyone else.

I think I get what you're saying, but I don't know if it would work with pink and purple..... maybe violet and purple or something?

Those are just random colours I picked. What I mean is that when we look at a certain object, we might see two completely different colours (which is what the OP is talking about), but what ever the real colour is doesn?t matter cause when we look at it, we will label it as blue.

Let?s say you are god, and you see the colours for what they truly are. An object you?re looking at is blue. Peasant 1 sees the same object and thinks its blue but he?s actually seeing your version of pink. Person 2 sees the same object, thinks its blue, but he?s really seeing your version of purple. The next time he sees an object that is blue to you, he will call it blue as well, but he?s really seeing another colour. But to the peasants it shouldn?t matter since they are conditioned to think the colour they see is blue.

Yah it?s a crackpot theory but that?s what I came up with so late at night. 😛

 

[dfi]

What color each individual person sees is irrelevant. What is relevant is the range of variation a color can cover before it is considered to be another color.

Case in point - 2 people look at a color. One says it's blue. The other agrees it's blue. Regardless of what color they see, they are able to agree on a particular color fitting both of their definition of blue.

The same 2 people look at another color. One says it's red, with a bit of orange. The other says it's orange, with a tint of red. This demonstrates the different definition-range of these 2 individuals. If enough of the population can come to a consensus on a definition for a range of colors, anyone with a definition-range noticeably different from the consensus is termed colorblind.

 

[esun]

I thought about this same thing many years ago. I decided that by Accom's Razor, it only made sense that people perceive the same colors as the same visual images. It is unneeded complexity otherwise, IMO, that makes it less likely.