The target article is an attempt to make some progress on the problem of color realism. Are objects colored? And what is the nature of the color properties? We defend the view that physical objects (for instance, tomatoes, radishes, and rubies) are colored, and that colors are physical properties, specifically, types of reflectance. This is probably a minority opinion, at least among color scientists. Textbooks frequently claim that physical objects are not colored, and that the colors are "subjective" or "in the mind." The article has two other purposes: First, to introduce an interdisciplinary audience to some distinctively philosophical tools that are useful in tackling the problem of color realism and, second, to clarify the various positions and central arguments in the debate. The first part explains the problem of color realism and makes some useful distinctions. These distinctions are then used to expose various confusions that often prevent people from seeing that the issues are genuine and difficult, and that the problem of color realism ought to be of interest to anyone working in the field of color science. The second part explains the various leading answers to the prob- lem of color realism, and (briefly) argues that all views other than our own have serious difficulties or are unmotivated. The third part explains and motivates our own view, that colors are types of reflectances and defends it against objections made in the recent literature that are often taken as fatal.

/pdf/color-realism-and-color-science-4kca5epgzi.pdf

Color realism and color science.

on his own subject; in this book the reader will not be disappointed. Moreover, the translation from the original French, with the inclusion of some new material, suffers from few of the defects so frequently seen, for it reads fluently and spontaneously as if it were the original text. The first chapter deals with the nature of light and its relation to other forms of radiant energy: a succinct and interesting review, followed by a full description of different types of illuminants including the various types of artificial lighting and natural lighting from the sun. This is followed by a description of the physiology of vision and the functioning of the eye shown by experiments carried out on the human eye by physical methods. This part comprises a full discussion of such problems as photometry, the illumination of the retina, luminance efficiency and the duality of the retina, colorimetry and the trivariance of the retina, colour vision and its anomalies, and the various thresholds, time effects, and the spatial interactions affecting vision. The second section of the book is more physiological and speculative. It is introduced by a description of the relevant anatomy of the eye, the photochemistry and electrophysiology of vision, the various theories of colour vision, and a physiological interpretation of the visual thresholds. The book is easy and good to read and gives a fair and critical exposition of its subject. It should be useful not only to the ophthalmologist but also to the physiologist and physicist.

https://bjo.bmj.com/content/bjophthalmol/53/1/66.1.full.pdf

Light, Colour and Vision

Our reply is in three parts. The first part concerns some foundational issues in the debate about color realism. The second part addresses the many objections to the version of physicalism about color ("productance physicalism") defended in the target ar- ticle. The third part discusses the leading alternative approaches and theories endorsed by the commentators. Our target article had three aims: (a) to explain clearly the structure of the debate about color realism; (b) to introduce an interdisciplinary audience to the way philosophers have thought about the issue; and (c) to argue that colors are cer- tain sorts of physical properties ("productances").

Color realism redux

For 100 years Benham's top has been a popular device demonstrating pattern-induced flicker colours (PIFCs). Results of early and recent investigations on PIFCs are reported and show that the phenomenon originates in phase-sensitive lateral interactions of modulated neural activity in the retina followed by additional spatial interactions in the visual cortex behind the locus of binocular fusion. Colour matches with normal colour stimuli indicate that S/(M + L) opponent neurons are involved. Dichromats do not find matching stimuli for all PIFCs. PIFCs may become useful in medical diagnosis. The phenomenon is interpreted as a side effect of a neural mechanism providing colour constancy under normal stimulus conditions.

100 Years of Benham's Top in Colour Science

While color realism is endorsed, Byrne & Hilbert's (B&H's) case for it stretches the notion of “physical property” beyond acceptable bounds. It is argued that a satisfactory account of color should do much more to respond to antirealist intuitions that flow from the specificity of color experience, and a pointer to an approach that does so is provided.

Peter C. Karvellas

Papers

Hue reversal in the Fechner-Benham color effect following white light adaptation