[lit-ideas] Re: Hume's Missing Shade of Blue
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:37:15 EDT
R. Paul runs a contest -- prize: a T-shirt. The winner (on divining it's
Leibniz), Karl Trogge, asks
>what colour is it?
R. Paul replies:
>Hume's missing shade of blue.
We haven't yet heard of Trogge's reaction to this. Did he like it. Does he
have matching pants? Anyway, since *I* would find the no-choice option
(and the shade being missing) all slightly offensive -- but then I thought it
was Wittengstein, not Leibniz, and so did not win -- I welcome R. Paul's
commentaries.
>Karl [Trogge] could [and can. JLS] *see* the [missing] shade of blue
>_perfectly_ well;
So why did he ask?
>in fact [Herr Trogge], who notices that
>this shade is 'missing' and forms the *idea* of it in his imagination
when
>viewing a panel of 'all the different shades of that colour, except that
>single one, [is] placed before him, descending gradually from the
>deepest to the lightest...' and '[perceives] a blank, where that shade
>is wanting...,' could have seen that shade of blue itself, earlier.
Isn't this the opinion of the 'few'? I for one would think the few are
mistaken.
>[This] works — *if* it _does_ — because of the contingent fact that
>[K. Trogge] has never *seen* the shade in question _before_.
But surely there's no way to prove that the experiment works. I would need
to wait for K. Trogge's description of the missing shade (of blue). And in
any case, why would I trust that that shade is the same as R. Paul _says_
the T-shirt is?
>So, if the color of this shade is no different from other shades of
>blue, in that it could be directly perceived through the senses, Mr.
>[Trogge] need not use his imagination to see it—only his eyes.
I _see_.
I hope Trogge has read the Essay and the Treatise, to give a grounded
opinion.
In _my_ opinion, Hume's distinction between impression and idea (less
vivid than impression) is ill-conceived and no wonder Locke never needed it.
I see Hume displays (or unweaves) the 'blue' rainbow into 'lightest' to
'deepest'. With 'medium blue' in the middle.
So I await with anxiety whether Herr Trogge will find a pair of matching
pants.
In some of the quotes from the wiki entry, the missing shade of blue _is_
compared to 'substance' and 'cause' which _are_ for Hume, 'metaphysically
invisible' (and untouchable, unheard, unsmelled, etc), to use R. Paul's
phrase.
And it's D. Hume's _scenario_ that rebuts his whole system, giving way to
Kant, etc.
----
Later,
J. L. S.
Buenos Aires, Argentina -- etc.
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