The Philosophy of Color

Is color real? If so, what is it? Why does this matter? This video explores the ancient debate between Newton and Goethe to answer these questions and shed some light (pun intended) on why we have certain associations with different colours.

Sources:
Brent Berlin, Paul Kay - Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution.
Kay, Berlin, Maffi, Merrifield, Cook. - The World Color Survey
Josef Albers - Interaction of Color
Kurt Nassau - The Physics and Chemistry of Color: The 15 Causes of Color
Evan Thompson - Colour Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Science
James J. Gibson - The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception
Henrik Moetius, Marie Louise Lauridsen - Light. Darkness And Colours (1998 Documentary about Goethe's colour theory)

Songs used (in order of appearance):
Fortress Europe - Dan Bodan
Wehrmut - Godmode
Bonos - Coyote Hearing
Prophet 7 - Noir Et Blanc Vie
Glitchin' a Ride - The Whole Other
MydNyte - Noir Et Blanc Vie
I Am Running Down the Long Hallway of Viewmont Elementary - Chris Zabriskie
Komorebi - Futuremono
QuangerineCream - Noir Et Blanc Vie

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
2:35 - Color associations
4:06 - Overview of color science
5:24 - Goethe's theory of color
8:43 - Experiments and illusions
11:22 - Color Dispositionalism
12:31 - The Ecological View
16:27 - Non-human animal color perception
17:03 - The argument from perceiver relativity
17:40 - Evolution

[GabrielPerboni]

This subject is super interesting for me. I was born with a genetic condition called retinal dystrophy. This is a progressive disease that slowly destroys the cells responsible for detecting both light and colors, which eventually will turn one partially or completelly blind.

Now the really interesting part that has to do with your video:
If I see a tree, I see its brown trunk and green leaves against the blue sky. However, if you show me a sheet of paper with these colors, I don't know how to differentiate one from the other, that is, I can see the colors, but only "psychologically" for lack of a better term.

Visually impaired people, especially those who wasn't born completelly blind, see various types of interesting phenomena. I suggest those interested to look for Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Anyway, thanks for your attention and sorry for the broken English, I understand it better than I write.

[safe]

This might give me that breakthrough I need as an artist.
I still struggle on deciding what colors to choose when painting. It takes a lot of time. But this video made me realize that as long as colors are in the context of a scene, then I'm going in the right direction.

[maya]

Every friend group's got the prism guy.

[YuBeace]

Man, the fact that researching colours is both a case of studying inherent properties AND studying perception and psychology really confirms to me that... this is my jam.

[McMingus]

Dude I’ve gotta say this was a such great video, it deserved to do so much better but honestly man you just gotta keep posting stuff, your content is genuinely one of a kind and I love the way you’re able to break down these topics and talk about them You’re 100% gonna blow up and make it big I’m so sure of it

[andrewevanyshyn]

This feels like a part 2 to your AI video. You said in that video that we are an interaction between ourselves and the environment so it's really cool to see it expanded upon here.

[Well_Earned_Siesta]

Ironically, blue light is hotter than red light. Blue light has a higher wavelength frequency, being closer to ultraviolet, while red is closer to the lower frequency and cooler infrared.

[forgeahead]

I absolutely love videos like this one. I’m an artist and have deep interest in the sciences. Thank you for this lesson on how colors are more than pretty hues.

[Bonzinho]

Another great video, colors are one of the best things about living, and one of the best gifts we have from nature. Aesthetics is a really cool part of Philosophy, and it's one of the things that make us look at the world differently, our art and life gets more and more beautiful every day!

[wack]

Hey I know you don’t get as many views on your non iceberg videos, but I wanted to say that despite that they are incredible videos and you are not wasting your time making them. They have meant a lot to me.

[mystiverse]

Fantastic video, dude! This kind of philosophy that connects cognitive science with phenomenology is right up my street, so this was an excellent watch. Well done!

[HarveyWatts]

It's like everyone's got a different texture pack on

[theyoloer]

Color is sooo so extremely cool and I would encourage anyone intrigued in thinking about color this way to read up on some color science stuff! I’m personally studying it as part of my degree and it is just fascinating. The light and objects and the way they interact are all out there, but you need humans there to actually perceive any of it. The psychological aspect of color is one of the most funky and interesting parts of our perception too. Very well put together video!!

PS when you mentioned the primary and secondary qualities thing I immediately thought about the fact that we actually have two different metrics for light, one purely objective and the other weighted through a curve for human perception. Again, v cool vid!

[humanthetooth]

I recently started listened to the audiobook version of An Immense World by Ed Yong while I walk my dog, the book explores how animals perceive their respective worlds and construct reality. Theres a chapter specifically on how different eyes receive color- its absolutely fascinating and pairs really well with this video. Happy to have discovered your channel this way.

[prototropo]

So impressed with the scope and research, writing, editing and prioritizing. Great work.
I'd love to hear more about aspects of color assessment I've never quite understood--like saturation, shade, tone, gray-tone, metallic color, light-bleaching, the endless mixed colors--teal, pink, salmon, lilac, sage, umber, cream, brown, vermilion, viridian, etc, and the various over-effects that seem to bear some analogy with the "timbre" of sound--adularescence, opalescence, iridescence, labradorescence, aventurescence, etc.

[ethoatom]

I found your channel through the linguistics iceberg, and I've fallen in love with your channel. I've watched most of your content over the past few days and eagerly await what you make in the future.

[Usnozulo]

This is one of the best philosophy videos I’ve seen on youtube! So interesting, informative and well thought out yet easy to understand 👏👏👏

[ozasylum]

Brilliant! I'm a painter who has been teaching color relativity for decades. It requires quite a shift in perception to overcome color constancy see how colors effect each other, but there are many practical ways of doing this. It begins with disconnecting from the namable object; seeing the visual world as a pattern of flat shapes, (back to the Newtonian scientific approach) and then seeing how those shapes interact (a responsive Goethe approach). One learns to place colors on a relative value scale (black to white), and on a relative saturation scale by comparing all the colors in a motif. Even with all those measurements, each person paints with a different set of colors because all the colors a relative and it all depends on your starting point.

Thanks for your wonderful video.

[RoccosStuff]

Wow, this video is genuinely one of the best explanations of a complex idea that I've ever seen. Bravo. Can't wait to see what you're working on next!!

[LittleMushroomGuy]

Incredibly well made video, if only I found it sooner since I was unaware that Goethe has a quasi-phenomenology of colors
The connection to 4E, ecology and Thompson is great, thats something that iv been researching lately