Color Ontology And Color Science

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Summary Leading philosophers and scientists consider what conclusions about color can be drawn when the latest analytic tools are applied to the most sophisticated color science. Philosophers and scientists have long speculated about the nature of color. Atomists such as Democritus thought color to be "conventional," not real; Galileo and other key figures of the Scientific Revolution thought that it was an erroneous projection of our own sensations onto external objects. More recently, philosophers have enriched the debate about color by aligning the most advanced color science with the most sophisticated methods of analytical philosophy. In this volume, leading scientists and philosophers examine new problems with new analytic tools, considering such topics as the psychophysical measurement of color and its implications, the nature of color experience in both normal color-perceivers and the color blind, and questions that arise from what we now know about the neural processing of color information, color consciousness, and color language. Taken together, these papers point toward a complete restructuring of current orthodoxy concerning color experience and how it relates to objective reality. Kuehni, Jameson, Mausfeld, and Niederee discuss how the traditional framework of a three-dimensional color space and basic color terms is far too simple to capture the complexities of color experience. Clark and MacLeod discuss the difficulties of a materialist account of color experience. Churchland, Cohen, Matthen, and Westphal offer competing accounts of color ontology. Finally, Broackes and Byrne and Hilbert discuss the phenomenology of color blindness. Contributors Justin Broackes, Alex Byrne, Paul M. Churchland, Austen Clark, Jonathan Cohen, David R. Hilbert, Kimberly A. Jameson, Rolf Kuehni, Don I.A. MacLeod, Mohan Matthen, Rainer Mausfeld, Richard Niederée, Jonathan Westphal

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Color Ontology and Color Science EDITED BY Jonathan Cohen and Mohan Matthen Color Ontology and Color Science Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology Kim Sterelny and Robert A. Wilson, editors Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution Susan Oyama, Paul E. Griffiths, and Russell D. Gray, editors, 2000 Coherence in Thought and Action Paul Thagard, 2000 The New Phrenology: The Limits of Localizing Cognitive Processes in the Brain William R. Uttal, 2001 Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered Bruce H. Weber and David J. Depew, editors, 2003 Seeing and Visualizing: It’s Not What You Think Zenon W. Pylyshyn, 2003 Organisms and Artifacts: Design in Nature and Elsewhere Tim Lewens, 2004 The Mind Incarnate Lawrence A. Shapiro, 2004 Molecular Models of Life: Philosophical Papers on Molecular Biology Sahotra Sarkar, 2004 Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb, 2005 The Evolution of Morality Richard Joyce, 2006 Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology Robert C. Richardson, 2007 Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic Russell T. Hurlburt and Eric Schwitzgebel, 2007 The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature Scott Atran and Douglas Medin, 2008 Color Ontology and Color Science Jonathan Cohen and Mohan Matthen, editors, 2010 Color Ontology and Color Science Jonathan Cohen and Mohan Matthen, editors A Bradford Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special