The Indeterminacy of Color Vision

Author: Montgomery R.

Source: Synthese, Volume 106, Number 2, February 1996 , pp. 167-203(37)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

A critical survey of recent work on the ontological status of colors supports the conclusion that, while some accounts of color can plausibly be dismissed, no single account can yet be endorsed. Among the remaining options are certain forms of color realism according which familiar colors are instantiated by objects in our extra-cranial visual environment. Also still an option is color anti-realism, the view that familiar colors are, at best, biologically adaptive fictions, instantiated nowhere.

I argue that there is simply no fact of the matter as to which of these remaining options is correct. I blame this indeterminacy on the fact that color vision exhibits several of the hallmarks of a modular input system, as described by Jerry Fodor in The Modularity of Mind.

Finally, I speculate that the range of live options falling within the scope of the indeterminacy may be even broader than initially indicated.

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: #

Publication date: 1996-02-01