Why can’t we describe colors like anything else?

Question

Why can’t we describe colors like anything else?

In: Other

Answer 1

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).