A Hazard of Looking to the World to Explain Color Phenomena:

The Seductive Appeal of Argument ad Pictorium

 

Wayne Wright

California State University, Long Beach

wwright2@csulb.edu

Abstract

This paper focuses on a popular strategy in color research - the attempt to ground one's account of color phenomena in features of the perceiver's environment - and illustrates a general difficulty to which it has led some researchers, both philosophers and scientists. The goal is to motivate the idea that a rejection of methodological internalism - the thesis that the internal structure of the visual system (and other relevant systems) alone provides the fundamental constraints on theories of color phenomena - fosters the pursuit of and fixation on (ultimately) spurious "matches" between certain bodies of data regarding color phenomena and external structures. A related harmful result is the distortion or devaluing of crucial aspects of color experience. Criticisms relevant to these concerns will be offered against Paul Churchland's reflectance physicalism and David Philipona & Kevin O'Regan's emphasis on reflectance properties of surfaces and the information accessible though a creature's photopigment set. Also explored are issues pertinent to the evaluation of low-dimensional linear models of reflectance spectra, particularly as such models might relate to computational accounts of color constancy. This examination will raise more questions than it answers, but it is hoped that the issues raised about such models point toward specific lines of inquiry that will prove beneficial to future empirical research.