What is Color? & Who Cares? | Philosophy Tube
Let’s look at the philosophy of colour! (Or color, if you’re American.) Is colour wavelengths of light? Mental perceptions? How do anthropology, linguistics, and the Pirahã tribe of the Amazon come into it? What does Wittgenstein say? Do trees falling in empty forests make a sound? Also, who cares?
@Lefthandedbanana
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
1:44 I know it’s an old video and no one will see this but tetra-chromates or people with 4 cones don’t see any more or less colours than people with 3 cones. The 4th yellow cone sits between the red and green cone on the wavelength chart so it doesn’t activate except under very specific laboratory conditions
@chrisbovington9607
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I found this video among several others because I just had a bit of an existential crisis when I figured out something that literally changed how I interpret colour.
My young daughter and I talked about colours while she was painting. She wanted to know how to mix pink and I said red and white and she said "so pink is just light red?" and I said yes. Then she wanted to mix brown so I said mix the three primary colours but she ended up with grey.
So I was thinking about that later and I realised that brown is just dark orange. For some reason that blew my noodle. And now, while my eyes still see the same colours and my brain still experiences the same colours in some sense, some part of my brain is now "seeing" browns as dark red-oranges, dark yellow-oranges, and straight dark oranges.
TREE TRUNKS ARE ORANGE!!!!
CHOCOLATES ARE ORANGE!!!!
CARDBOARD IS ORANGE!!!!
Obviously it is not just the change in colour interpretation that is melting my mind but the implications … how do we ever agree on anything? if i failed to see such a basic thing for so long then what else am i missing or misinterpreting? how can i trust myself? etc. etc.
But more importantly, how can Abigail be both the daughter of the tetrachromat and the heir of the Stuart kings while I get stuck with disturbing, obsessesive thoughts of orange poo in the philosophical tower of Babel?
@piraterubberduck6056
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
The natural light colour changes throughout the day so our brains adapt to that to show us the colour we think the thing actually is (the blue/black white/gold dress thing was an example of this being odd). So colour is what we think something is, not what our eyes see.
We really can't see colour outside of the macular, so our peripheral vision is all black and white. We see colour in our peripheral anyway as our brains fill the colours in based on what we expect to see.
You can tell a colourblind person what colour something is and they will start seeing it as that colour even though they couldn't tell the colour beforehand. So our brains will accept secondhand information in the dorm of language to augment our own vision.
Our brains lie to us all the time and try to show us the world as it is, even if we can't see all of it and it involves making things up to fill in the gaps.
@virdrae
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
And since this is pre-eggcrack: people who knows the words for transgender, dysphoria etc. are more likely to discover that they are trans … and not just weird. Same thing for all the other letters of quiltbag or diagnoses.
Another thing to mention, is that in Norwegian, sex and gender is the same word (kjønn), so people around here have it harder to realise that kjønn and kjønn is two different things.
We are kinda defined by our language's terms.
@sumdumbmick
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
'orange' was counted among the 11 'basic' color terms of English.
this is a problem because 'orange' came into English as a reference to the fruit. it's so recent, in fact, that the initial sound 'n' was dropped due to an aspect of modern English grammar. namely 'a norange' sounds the same as 'an orange', noting that in Spanish the word for the fruit is 'naranja'.
it's also a problem that 'brown' is included along with 'orange', because they overlap almost completely. 'purple' is also a problematic inclusion, because, for one thing it's a in the form of a reduplicative noun, and for another it crosses language families very oddly, similar to how 'orange' does. meaning that it ultimately probably refers to an object.
languages which use a reference to 'coffee' for 'brown' are not counted as having 'brown' as a basic color term, so why do English and other Eurasian languages get to have 'orange' and 'purple' counted as basic color terms?
further, the logical structures claimed to occur in the 'evolution' of language term systems are simply fictional. a fantastic example is Turkish, which has 2 mirrored logical structures which split the color terms into 'warm' and 'cool'. and each of these categories is split into 'achromatic', 'reddish', 'intermediate' and 'yellowish'. the warm category is thus – beyaz/ak (white), kırmızı (red), turuncu (orange), sarı (yellow). and the cool category is thus – siyah/kara (black), mor (purple), mavi (blue), yeşil (green).
note that the achromatic categories in Turkish have 2 options each, this is specific evidence indicating that the division of the color terms into the categories presented is psychologically real to Turkish speakers, and not merely a pattern that was imposed upon the color terms by a researcher. in contrast, Indo-European languages never organize their color terms this way, and neither do languages from anywhere else in the world.
@sentionaut6270
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I'm colorblind so… I really do see color differently.
@rekall76
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
"except dance and mime?" ah, but do not the gestures and motions employed in either of these fields also comprise a language, replete with syntax, and thus also subject to linguistic universalism vs. relativism?
@ValerietheLovelyDeadlyItalian
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
i am absolutely devouring your older content! awesome thing to find out about your mother! (shes very proud of you, by the way, as Tallerico says)
@melttyarts5996
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I would love an updated version of this video. I think you could come up with some lovely vibes to go with this.
@melttyarts5996
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I some cultures see more colors because they have more names for colors then colors are sort of socially constructed?
@melttyarts5996
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I like to play a game called I love hue where you basically just place blocks of color where they belong on a color spectrum and when I haven't played it for a while it gets way harder than when I play it a lot. Like my eyes can learn to differentiate color better? I wonder if your mom would be really good at that game.
@hippityhoppityilikemypriva4467
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I cant believe her skins really been that good for this long
@psybernaught
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
The more interesting question to me is not the biology of the eye, but the mechanism of perception that apprehends distinctions in color. It is hard not to imagine that the boundaries or center-points of color on a color wheel as being innate in the way that we perceive them. I have heard such basal components of sense as being called "qualia", and that this term applies to more than just sight, but to sound and temperature, and all the senses in the way they can be divided to presumably innate components. As far as I know, it is the modern consensus that the mind could not exist or begin its growth and development in learning about the world without innate bootstrapping mechanisms that help us to perceive and frame the world so as to get an initial understanding of it. Notions of space and time, for example, as well as primal distinctions between what is alive and what is inert, and the list could go on for quite a while. Instincts that are necessary to have the advantages of having a brain in the first place considering its evolutionary cost. The things, for example, that would allow a flatworm to hunt prey without having to starve to death first. Despite the sense that we carry, that when we perceive the world that this perception is direct, it's been shown by various studies that we do quite a bit of pre-processing to our senses to be able to use those sense impressions to make a full but quick picture of the world we can apprehend and make decisions about. So, what I am interested in, is whether or not your mother actually sees a distinct fourth color, and not just whether her eyes see a fourth color. Does she have an additional qualia mentally? Is it possible that additional qualia can be so constructed, or is there something about cognition which forbids it? Would an alien perceive the world with the same colors? How is a color different than the sensation of a bitter taste? Both faculties are evolved from the sensory cells in our skin, by the way, so it would make some sense to say they somehow mentally branched off from touch or temperature sensations in the evolution of those senses. But they seem nothing alike, to me anyway.
@neongod3547
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Can I conclude from your getup in the transhumanism vid that you now are in the X-Men?
@jasonfraser4854
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
this is the first time I've heard someone agree with me about the tree falling in the woods question. nice
@Gigi43756
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Abby needs to make a video with her mum
@rauldjvp3053
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I’ve made your mum see colors alright
@louisuchihatm2556
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
In an article published by Journal of Vision, titled "_**The dimensionality of color vision in carriers of anomalous trichromacy**," under discussions, they write, "Carriers of deuteranomaly constitute about 10% of all women (Pokorny, Smith, Verriest, & Pinckers, 1979), but most carriers in our sample showed little evidence of a salient tetrachromatic signal. /*Our one candidate for strong tetrachromacy is cDa29*/."
@thomaskirkness-little5809
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
When it comes to colours I have a real example that helped my mum understand how I see. I dropped my dark green dish sponge on my terracotta kitchen floor. I know the sponge is green. I know the floor is red (-dish brown). But I couldn't see it anywhere. In the end I found it by looking at an angle. They're different colours but similar shades, so it just didn't stand out enough. There was also a time when I saw children picking up small bright red toys from a bright green carpet and I could only see the toys when I looked directly at them. They vanished as soon as I looked even slightly to the side. It would've taken me hours to find them all.
@rebeccahutchings1520
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Face it and address it. Head on. We are facing the fact that not everyone calls red, red, a spade a spade. Linguistic universalism.
@rebeccahutchings1520
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I want to unattatch other people's attachments to chakras and chakra colours. So as to look into the mystical philosophy if colour.
@rebeccahutchings1520
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Disagree. The mystical philosophy of colour.
@rebeccahutchings1520
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
What about the word ear: sounds like here, as well as hear. E A R. And the clue is in writing it. So does a tree make a sound in the woods if no ones there to hear it? Write.
@cervore
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
and if the world isn't sound and colour, who can say what else it could be perceived as by a different brain. This has always excited me.
@Giddleford
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
This would've been soooo useful when I was writing a paper on color. Goddamn.
@MoselleGreen
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Tetrachromacy is so neat, it's so cool that your mother is the first one identified!
@Mad_S
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Does that mean camouflage isnt effective against you?
@Mad_S
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
When I was in 5th grade I asked this question. She just told me it was a dumb question and I should only ask questions based on the curriculum.
@silvermist6891
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
My mum. Wow. I didn't expect that. no.
@anomienormie8126
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
In Korean, apart from the basic “rainbow colours”, we have a different way of saying each colour depending on the properties the colour has. For example, Red and Blue are “Bbalgang” and “Parang”. But when those red and blue are… sort of bright and closer to primary colour tones, it’s called “Saebbalgan” and “Saeparan”. When they’re a stark darker tone it’s “Shibbeolgun” and “Shipeolun”. There are about seven or so variations, each with an intuitive rule. For example, when the colour word variation starts with a Ah vowel, it’s bright. When it starts with a Uh vowel, it’s darker. Every Korean knows a corpse’s blue is a “Purudangdanghan” blue without being taught so.
@KarolaTea
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Hmm, so that would count "colour" or "sound" as sensations, similar to feelings. Something can't be inherently happy, but it can cause the sensation of happiness. So the "wavelength" or "air vibrations" are inherent properties, which can cause the sensations of "colour" or "sound" if somebody is there to observe them. But same as a trampoline might have the property of being elastic, it doesn't necessarily cause the sensation of happiness in all people, a ripe tomato will always reflect the same wavelength of light, but it doesn't always cause the sensation of red. Did I get that right?
The "does your red look like my red" also leads to the larger 'issue' that we can never experience the world through another's eye. We can never truely know how someone else thinks or feels.
@moss5356
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
WHY ARE YOU RELATED TO SO MANY CRAZY PEOPLE
@gofar5185
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
true… there are some tribes people who dont care about color… they rather discriminate thin bodies… that thin bodies are abnormal bodies… they appreciate fat bodies…
@clarkeybaby2955
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
This was really interesting! I love colour theory but I've never encountered colour philosophy. Especially as it pertains to language. It was actually something I noticed about English in comparison to Gaelige (the Irish language) before.
As an example, in Gaelige, there are three distinct words for white but with different meanings and usages.
Bán – the most commonly used for white coloured objects, but more specifically means pale. You'd use it for skin, wine, snow, all sorts. Bán also means empty or blank (i.e. Áit bán means "an empty place".)
Geal – is often translated as "clear white" but in use it implies brightness and freshness. Geal is used to describe the colour of a lime, despite limes being green. It can also be used for the sun or frost or clear days.
Fionn – can be translated as "fair" as it's most often used for light coloured hair. But you can also use it for sunlight or even sea foam. (Things which, in english, youd say are yellow and green, respectively). This to me, implies a kind of faintness or a lack of vividness.
It goes further, most colour words in Gaeilge have associated implications or idiomatic meanings. With this video in mind it feels as if there's more of an attempt to capture the experience of an object rather than name it's colour.
@HarryNicNicholas
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
i just came here from another video lecture on colour, and the history of when certain colours were first mentioned, for instance there was no reference to "blue" until – i forget the date but greek times i believe – the univserse is indeed grey, and it's intersting you list sound smell and taste because none of those things have their characteristics until the brain gets hold of them, light as you say has wavelengths, but the electromagnetic spectrum has no intrinsic colour until it hits the eyeball. likewise sound has no intrinsic colour, but it's been proposed that some species of bats can convert sonar into 3D images, and even colour them. nice talk, interesting mum, is she single?
@ricardosoca7380
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Yeah exacty who cares. So why even make a video about it then???
Edit: nice chest hair, btw 🙂
@TaiChiKnees
August 17, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I have had waxing and waning depression for over two decades and am a trained eye surgeon. I've experienced a marked increase in saturation of color that signals when I am coming out of a depressive episode. My psychiatrists in Chicago and at Johns Hopkins say they have seen this in other patients, as well, that the emotional component of experiencing color as something pretty or vivid, is reduced during depressive episodes for some people. When I'm depressed I just don't notice color. I can point to a color if you ask but color is just an attribute of an object. There is no beauty in it. When I am healthy not only do colors bring me feelings of happiness, but I also can distinguish the variation of color in something like the leaves of a tree or the blue of the sky. So I can attest that color is seen and experienced differently within a single brain depending on the relative levels of serotonin, norepinephrine and whatever other neurotransmitters are responsible for affective mood disorders.
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