Color and Color Perception: A Study in Anthropocentric Realism (Volume 9)

by David R. Hilbert

Colour has often been supposed to be a subjective property, a property to be analysed orretly in terms of the phenomenological aspects of human expereince. In contrast with subjectivism, an objectivist analysis of color takes color to be a property objects possess in themselves, independently of the character of human perceptual expereince. David Hilbert defends a form of objectivism that identifies color with a physical property of surfaces - their spectral reflectance. This analysis of color is shown to provide a more adequate account of the features of human color vision than its subjectivist rivals. The author's account of colro also recognises that the human perceptual system provides a limited and idiosyncratic picture of the world. These limitations are shown to be consistent with a realist account of colour and to provide the necessary tools for giving an analysis of common sense knowledge of color phenomena.

156 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1987

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the subject of this undertaking fascinating, and usually I have no issues with a highly academic writing style. But I just couldn't make it past the first 20 pages. To say it bored me to tears wouldn't exactly be true, because upon each attempt to get past a few lines I think my eyes dried out in record time and nearly shriveled back into my orbital cavities. 1 star for originality, 1 star for seriousness of work, 1 star for effort. But that's it.