The Colour Red

[Khandro]

Does the colour red (or any other of the spectrum) exist outside of the mind?

[naomi24]

Go on then.

[jim360]

Yes.

[Canary42]

Yes.

[vascop]

Yes.

[naomi24]

Ahhh, come on you lot! Give the guy a chance. I'm thinking he's going to tell us that it doesn't.

[factor-fiction]

Do we exist outside our own mind?

[Wharton]

I don't really know the answer but some people think that you can find reds under beds.

[naomi24]

Factor, I know I exist in other people's minds, but whether that is really me or not ...... ;o)

[Hopkirk]

Surely it's a no.

It's just the way your brain interprets the information the eye receives.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

Yes

[Old_Geezer]

Surely this is one of those definition questions. I'd say that red is defined by an electromagnetic wave of a certain range of frequencies. Others may say it isn't red until perceived, and it is the perception that defines its redness quality, but of course they are mistaken.

[wolf63]

Is it all just my imagination?




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[wolf63]

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[wolf63]

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[Mamyalynne]

For Wolfie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h25EDE-TD00

[wolf63]

Thanks many, I thought that I would have to go and fire up the PC.

[mibn2cweus]

Red is the name we have given to how our minds perceive a particular range of visual stimuli corresponding to a distinct range of wavelengths of emitted or reflected light, thereby providing the viewer with information about and knowledge of an existing and important aspect of reality.

[Khandro]

mibn2cweus; ^ A good and most elegant definition, but do you think the experience of person A, is necessarily identical to that of person B ?

[Peter Pedant]

Khandro - you are asking the wrong culture/race/nation

we have had three hundred years of Newton - Let Newton be and all was light ! etc... who was keen on the physical nature of light - he chose particular at a time when waves did better ( Huyghens)

Over the water in what would later be Germany Goethe was talking up the ideas of colour being in the mind/psychological. The colour changes of Mondrians paintings which cause difficulty for Newtonians have no problem from Goethe's point of view

try goggling Goethe concept of colour

Trevor Roper Through Blunted sight has a lot on how arteests see the world. Turner for example painted the world thro his yellowish cataracts and so on

[LazyGun]

The way we see colour is via a photochemical reaction in the eye which passes information to the brain. The colour sensitive cells in the eye are called the "cones", and we have 3 types of cone cells -short, medium and long wavelength. What we perceive as colour is actually a synthesis of the the information passed to the brain by these cone cells in the cortex and associated areas in the brain.

This is how it works across all humans, except those with genetic/hereditary problems or damage to the macula, which is why we have a common agreement on what synthesis hue constitutes red, as opposed to scarlet, for instance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision

Birds have 4 types of colour receptor cells, so the range of their colour and hue distinction is more sophisticated than humans, and the dominant "colour" that their cone cells detect is skewed toward the UV portion of the light spectrum, rather than visible light spectrum as humans do. Consequently, Birds will see the colour of a rose petal, say in a different way to humans. Insects too see primarily in the UV verging into the blue/green visible light spectrum.

And a plants leaf/flower looks much different when viewed in UV light.

http://www.naturfotograf.com/index2.html