| Cohen, J. On The Structural Properties of the Colors Australasian Journal of Philosophy 2003 (81)1 [pdf] |
| Primary quality theories of color claim that colors are intrinsic, objective, mind-independent properties of external objects | that colors, like size and shape, are examples of the sort of properties moderns such as Boyle and Locke called primary qualities of body.1 Primary quality theories have long been seen as one of the main philosophical options for understanding the nature of color. However, a recent, empirically motivated argument seems to have convinced many that primary quality theories cannot be sustained. This argument, in outline, alleges that colors bear structural relations to each other that no primary qualities bear to each other, and therefore that colors cannot be primary qualities. This argument has received considerable philosophical attention in recent years, and appears to have convinced many to abandon primary quality theories of color.2 However, I believe the argument has been misunderstood. In this paper I shall examine arguments based on the structural properties of the colors in order to discern what they do and do not show about primary quality theories of color. |
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