if colors are an illusion created by the brain what does the world look like outside the eye.

Question

if colors are an illusion created by the brain what does the world look like outside the eye.

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

“Look” is a word for what the eye does and how the brain processes it. The world doesn’t inherently “look” any way, any more than it “sounds” any way or “feels” any way or “smells” any way. Those are words for sensations, not for physical qualities.

We can measure the available wavelengths of light with statements like “this object emits light in a narrow band of wavelengths around 650 nm”. You would normally describe such an object as “glowing deep red”. That’s not “an illusion”, it’s just the sensation that a glow of 650 nm wavelength light produces.