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What, if anything, are coloursrelative to?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2005

John Hyman
Affiliation:
The Queen's College, Oxford

Abstract

The questions considered are whether colours are relative to systems of colour concepts, to the conditions in which they are observed, or to observers or communities of observers; and whether the relativity of colours, such as it is, implies that they are less real than shapes or intervals in time. The argument is based on the thought that Special Relativity provides the best available intellectual framework for thinking about the supposed relativity of qualities of physical things.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2005

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