Thread: Is red really red ?

Originally posted by Leo Volont


But we have a great many hints that we are all seeing the same thing. Lady in a RED Dress. Cops like pulling over RED cars. Fireengines, at least used to be RED, before the new glowing colors came out. We all call RED a hot color, while all agreeing that BLUE is cool. And then we all have no problem at all listing up the other hot and cool colors in their correct columns. Nobody wants a GREEN car unless at price discount. And then Used Car Dealers have a facination with YELLOW.

Just in these repeated contexts, it seems we are all perceiving about the same things.

No that still doesn't solve it, because if I see yellow where you see blue, it is all in context. There are more people with blue cars than yellow cars. So I would be accustomed to seeing yellow cars, just as you are accustomed to seeing blue cars. But if I saw blue car that to you was yellow, it would stand out to both of us. We know it as the same name- yellow, but it may appear slightly different to people.

Now with that said, I want to say that I believe we all see pretty much the same thing. Some people might see things a shade darker than others or a shade lighter, but in general we all see the same thing I believe. I have thought about this for years also. I guess there's really no way to prove on way or the other, but we are all humans, and we all have the same hardware. it's just a matter of perception from there.

Just like some people have allergic reactions to foods while others do not. We are not all the same, so our eyes may percieve colors differently.

My two eyes don't see colors exactly the same way. They both see red as red, but slightly different variations of it. I don't think people ever have completely the same perception of a light wave, but because of the rods and cones similarities people have (as Howie pointed out), I don't think any person sees red the way another person sees yellow. If that does happen, there is no way we can know because they will both call it the same thing.

interesting i often wondre of this myself

I can do that pretty easily, I think it is because one side of your brain is telling you to say the word, and the other side is telling you to say the color

I've pondered that too. What if red houses are really yellow? What if green plants are really black? Oh no, no one can be sure.