how do we know if we perceive colours the same way?
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Short answer : no. You cannot detect anyone that perceive colours the same way , as long as what he perceives is in bijection with what you perceive. It’s only when there is an injection (at least two colours peirceived as the same) that you can detect it. Same thing for knowing if other people really exist , or if you’re the only person that exist , and all around you is simulated. There is no way to know if people exist , the same way you exist
Short answer : no. You cannot detect anyone that perceive colours the same way , as long as what he perceives is in bijection with what you perceive. It’s only when there is an injection (at least two colours peirceived as the same) that you can detect it. Same thing for knowing if other people really exist , or if you’re the only person that exist , and all around you is simulated. There is no way to know if people exist , the same way you exist
I don’t know if Tommy Edison is still active on Youtube, but he had an old video where he talked about the different ways people have tried to describe color to him. He’s blind since birth, so he has no experience seeing color whatsoever, but he knows what all the different colors are and what they represent. He knows that the sky is blue and so is the ocean, even if water is clear, he knows trees and grass are green unless they’re dead then they’re brown or yellow, he knows fire trucks are red and school buses are yellow, and so on. But he’s never been able to “imagine” color. No one’s ever been able to describe what green looks like, they can only name objects that are green.
I don’t know if Tommy Edison is still active on Youtube, but he had an old video where he talked about the different ways people have tried to describe color to him. He’s blind since birth, so he has no experience seeing color whatsoever, but he knows what all the different colors are and what they represent. He knows that the sky is blue and so is the ocean, even if water is clear, he knows trees and grass are green unless they’re dead then they’re brown or yellow, he knows fire trucks are red and school buses are yellow, and so on. But he’s never been able to “imagine” color. No one’s ever been able to describe what green looks like, they can only name objects that are green.
We can’t possibly know if my experience of seeing (say) red is the same as it is for you.
However, one thing we do know is that everyone in the world (with normal color vision) says that red is similar to orange. And that orange is similar to both red and yellow. And that reddish oranges look more similar to red, and yellowish oranges look more like yellow.
We also know that everyone can point to a reddish color that is not at all yellowish and not at all bluish (it is *unmixed*). This color is “primary red”. Everyone has these primaries, and they are always red, yellow, and blue (edit: and green). In contrast, purple looks somewhat reddish and somewhat bluish to everyone, and you won’t find anyone who considers purple a primary color (in that it is only purplish and not at all bluish, reddish, or any other color).
In short, we know that everyone’s color perception is *structured* the same way, using the same color space with the same overall geometry. We just don’t know if the subjective experience associated with each point in the color space is the same.
I’ve thought the same thing about taste as well. Does chocolate taste the same to me as it does to you? We’ll never know.
Short answer : no. You cannot detect anyone that perceive colours the same way , as long as what he perceives is in bijection with what you perceive. It’s only when there is an injection (at least two colours peirceived as the same) that you can detect it. Same thing for knowing if other people really exist , or if you’re the only person that exist , and all around you is simulated. There is no way to know if people exist , the same way you exist
We can’t possibly know if my experience of seeing (say) red is the same as it is for you.
However, one thing we do know is that everyone in the world (with normal color vision) says that red is similar to orange. And that orange is similar to both red and yellow. And that reddish oranges look more similar to red, and yellowish oranges look more like yellow.
We also know that everyone can point to a reddish color that is not at all yellowish and not at all bluish (it is *unmixed*). This color is “primary red”. Everyone has these primaries, and they are always red, yellow, and blue (edit: and green). In contrast, purple looks somewhat reddish and somewhat bluish to everyone, and you won’t find anyone who considers purple a primary color (in that it is only purplish and not at all bluish, reddish, or any other color).
In short, we know that everyone’s color perception is *structured* the same way, using the same color space with the same overall geometry. We just don’t know if the subjective experience associated with each point in the color space is the same.
I’ve thought the same thing about taste as well. Does chocolate taste the same to me as it does to you? We’ll never know.
We can’t possibly know if my experience of seeing (say) red is the same as it is for you.
However, one thing we do know is that everyone in the world (with normal color vision) says that red is similar to orange. And that orange is similar to both red and yellow. And that reddish oranges look more similar to red, and yellowish oranges look more like yellow.
We also know that everyone can point to a reddish color that is not at all yellowish and not at all bluish (it is *unmixed*). This color is “primary red”. Everyone has these primaries, and they are always red, yellow, and blue (edit: and green). In contrast, purple looks somewhat reddish and somewhat bluish to everyone, and you won’t find anyone who considers purple a primary color (in that it is only purplish and not at all bluish, reddish, or any other color).
In short, we know that everyone’s color perception is *structured* the same way, using the same color space with the same overall geometry. We just don’t know if the subjective experience associated with each point in the color space is the same.
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