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Article #850

Colors, Schemes, Theories

#850
From: Jamie
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 16:37
33 lines
1795 bytes
Christopher Green:

> (Note that many cultures do not have the same color scheme as us.)

I would like to know what this means.

Does it mean that some languages give names to different colors
from the ones we distinguish with names? That seems an
unremarkable fact.

Does it mean that people in some cultures make significantly
different similarity judgments between colors from the ones
we make? I would like to know the evidence for this.

C.L. Hardin reports the opposite. He reports that experimental
data show that (1) infants have a "hue space" that is neatly
divided into four similarity classes centered upon the four
unique hues; (2) the Dani people of New Guinea, who have no
words for abstract chromatic hues, recognize which ones are
the unique hues anyway. (Reference and quotations available
upon request.)

What is a color scheme?

Almost as an aside at this point, let me add that I do not quite
see the relevance of the theory-laden/pure observation distinction
to the question of scientific realism. Suppose, that is, stipulate,
that all observations are theory-laden. How would this show that
there is no such thing as a true (in the sense of, correctly
describing the world) theory? How would it show that theoretic
terms have no referents?

Jamie
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From: PL436000@brownvm.brown.edu (Jamie)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Colors, Schemes, Theories
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 11:37:29 EST
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