We can NOT expect (unless, to use Hart's favourite part of speech, we are
not hallucinating) to experience a disembodied colour, freely floating in
perceptual space, and not simply because we do not experience such a thing
-- i.e. the truth of
ii. No colour without a coloured body.
A so-called rainbow is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of
light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the
sky.
*Well, is the sky a body ? I would rather think that it is the field of
vision in which we sometimes perceive blue, sometimes grey etc. and then
construe it as some sort of object.
I think that we are seeing another example of allegedly analytic argument
that turns out to be prescriptive - we should not EXPECT to see etc. In any
case it is at least possible to imagine colours without objects.
O.K.
On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 2:18 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In a message dated 5/18/2015 8:03:04 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Some complications just came up, the sun appears yellow all over when seen
through the Earth''s athmosphere but if we were out in the space it would
appear white all over, so which color is it really ?
Well, the sun was one conversational topic for Goethe, and oddly, the topic
irritated Witters.
Goethe wrote (in German, but I translate):
"The highest degree of light, such as that of the sun... is for the most
part colourless."
"This light, however, seen through a medium but very slightly thickened,
appears to us yellow."
"If the density of such a medium be increased, or if its volume become
greater, we shall see the light gradually assume a yellow-red hue, which at
last deepens to a ruby colour."
"If on the other hand darkness is seen through a semi-transparent medium,
which is itself illumined by a light striking on it, a blue colour
appears."
"This becomes lighter and paler as the density of the medium is increased,
but on the contrary appears darker and deeper the more transparent the
medium becomes."
"In the least degree of dimness short of absolute transparence, always
supposing a perfectly colourless medium, this deep blue approaches the most
beautiful violet."
Theory of Colours, pp. 150–151.
-- and violet was, understandably, Mary Somerville's and Turner's favourite
colour.
Cheers,
Speranza
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