Locating the Unique Hues

ISSN： 0035-6212

Source： Rivista di estetica, Vol.43, Iss.1, 2010-03, pp. : 13-28

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Abstract

Variations in colour perception have featured prominently in recent attempts to argue against the view that colours are objective mind-independent properties of the perceptual environment: either physical properties, such as types of surface reflectance profile (e.g. Byrne and hilbert 1997, 2003, 2007 and tye 2006), or else sui generis mind-independent properties (e.g. campbell 1993). My aim in this paper is to defend the view that colours are mind-independent properties in response to worries arising from one type of empirically documented case of perceptual variation: variation in the perception of the “unique hues”. §1 sets out the challenge raised by variation in the perception of the unique hues. I argue in §2 that the empirical findings are less dramatic than they might initially appear, and in §3 that accounting for the inter-personal differences is consistent with the view that colours are mind-independent properties that normal subjects veridically perceive, at least roughly speaking.