The Language of Colour : Neurology and the Ineffable

Unwin, Nicholas (2012) The Language of Colour : Neurology and the Ineffable. Biolinguistics, 6 (3-4). pp. 475-490. ISSN 1450-3417

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Abstract

It is often claimed, following Joseph Levine, that there is an ‘explanatory gap’ between ordinary physical facts and the way we perceive things, so that it is impossible to explain, among other things, why colours actually look the way they do. C.L. Hardin, by contrast, argues that there are sufficient asymmetries between colours to traverse this gap. This paper argues that the terms we use to characterize colours, such as ‘warm’ and ‘cool’, are not well understood, and that we need to understand the neurological basis for such associations if we are even to understand what is fully meant by saying, for example, that red is a warm colour. This paper also speculates on how Hardin’s strategy can be generalized. A PowerPoint presentation that depicts inverted colour qualia is attached as an appendix.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Biolinguistics
Additional Information:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/philosophy
Subjects:
?? c.l. hardincolour colour vocabulary explanatory gap per-ceptionqualiaphilosophyb philosophy (general) ??
ID Code:
57972
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
30 Aug 2012 09:05
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
11 Dec 2024 00:14