Why can’t we describe colors like anything else?
In: Other
Yeah it’s like trying to explain sound to a deaf person, okay you know the vibrations you sometimes feel with a back massager or Thunder or loud fireworks? So our ears can discern those vibrations in wicked detail…
Because their names are autological, which means they describe themselves. You could, however, describe certain colors by defining other colors that can combine to create said color.
Can’t we? We have words like warm and cool, neon, earthy, light and dark, you can talk about saturation, etc.
Also, to the extent that colors are hard to describe, is this any different from other senses, like sounds or smells or the way things feel?
You’ve run into one of the main features of [qualia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia). Qualia are our direct experiences. They’re not “the thing being experienced”, but are instead “the experience itself”. There’s a pretty good quote from that Wikipedia article:
>[Qualia are the] ‘what it is like’ character of mental states. The way it feels to have mental states such as pain, seeing red, smelling a rose, etc.
One of the main feature of qualia is that they’re “ineffable” (i.e. cannot be fully described in words).
Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of 471 nanometers
What am I?
We can.
[
Scene from the movie: Mask.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwkdDhmf6PE)
He’s describing colors to a girl who was born blind.
You can *sort of* describe colors using works like warm, cool, etc. not perfect but us artists do this regularly.
It’s sensory input. Sound can’t be described, smell can’t be described, touch can’t be described.
Sensory input can’t be conveyed with words.
https://www.thecut.com/2016/09/how-to-explain-color-to-a-blind-person.html
“They had me stand outside in the sun. They told me that the heat I was feeling is red. They explained that red is the color of a burn, from heat, embarrassment, or even anger.”
“They put my hands in their pool. They told me that that sensation I felt while swimming, that omnipresent coolness, that’s blue. Blue feels like relaxation.”
“I held soft leaves and wet grass. They told me green felt like life. To this day it is still very much my favorite color.”
I’ve read similar descriptions like these ones as well. Some I think are more accurate than others but I also think it varies from person to person how they would correlate a colour with a sensation, feeling or emotion.
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