Are colours objective or subjective?

[Somenoob]

Just wondering...

edit: damn, i wrote the wrong thing

I can't edit it and I'm too lazy to make a new one, so Yes for objective and No for subjective.

[slimdog360]

perhaps you should have had objective and subjective in the poll rather then yes and no.

[LaRoza]

I think colours are subjective. The poll doesn't make sense, so I didn't take part.

[j.miller565]

I've got no clue lol

[red_Marvin]

(IMO) Colours are objective if you mean the ratio between the different wavelengths in a beam of light, but they are objective if you are thinking about the colour of the wallpaper in your kitchen as it has to do with that the eyes adapt to the light in the current environment as well as the wavelength mix of the incident light and how each of those are reflected by the wallpaper.

EDIT, but then it also has to do with the relative speeds of the source and detector because of the Doppler effect, so maybe it's all subjective, or at least when you're not taking all parameters into account...

[use a name]

Do you mean that colors are perceived differently? That one may see green the way I see red, yet grass would look perfectly natural to both of us because we're used to grass being that color? In that case: I've always wondered too...

[Kimm]

Do you mean that colors are perceived differently? That one may see green the way I see red, yet grass would look perfectly natural to both of us because we're used to grass being that color? In that case: I've always wondered too...

I've also always wondered about this...
I think they are though. It would have to do with genes. After all, some are born without even the ability to see colours, so why shouldn't people be able to perceive them differently.

[%hMa@?b<C]

only one way to find out. Who wants to trade eyes with me?

[LaRoza]

only one way to find out. Who wants to trade eyes with me?

OK, I will mail them if you mail yours first.

(Seeing actually takes place in the brain, so we should exchange them too)

[Nezing]

Both objective,and subjective must be correct.Er...seen any black and white fireworks? :)

[bapoumba]

I can't edit it and I'm too lazy to make a new one, so Yes for objective and No for subjective.
Edited your poll ;)

[Bou]

And here I thought I was the only crazy guy who had wondered that.

[init1]

One can break down the color emitted by an object in to the primary colors, so you can tell if an object is omitting more of one color then another.

[rax_m]

I've always luved that question..

I definitely think it's subjective. After all every individual is different therefore the cones and receptors in the eyes have to be different and therefore we will perceive a color slightly differently. I think it doesn't make that much of a difference for the easily identifiable colours, but when it comes to those that for e.g. yellowy-orange or bluey-green some people will call it blue while the other green.

[LaRoza]

How do I know what you perceive as "blue" is the same as what I perceive?

We have no common reference, except that we all agree that a certain colour's name is, we have no way of telling if that is the same as the other.

[forrestcupp]

I said objective.

I don't think the rods and cones are what determines how we perceive colors, but rather how the brain reads the input from the rods and cones. I think that most people probably perceive colors the same because the general makeup of a human's body is standard. But I think there are a minority of people whose makeup is non-standard who perceive colors differently or not at all, i.e. color blindness.

This is why I think colors are objective. I have often wondered about this, though.

[Ancheron]

This is actually a very interesting question, which is a doorway to much greater and astounding questions about humanity's relation with reality, both individually and collectively. Grandiose verbiage, however warranted, shall be put aside for the moment. Christopher Alexander in volume four of the Nature of Order, describes Erwin Schroedinger's thought experiment investigating the universality of color. Quantum mechanics and its progeny, relativism, promote the concept that a light of 6000 angstroms may be interpreted differently by two observers.

Schrodinger, although he was the creator of the mathematics and interpretations of Quantum mechanics, stated that at the fundamental level the same experience is shared between two observers, otherwise an a outstanding and unresolvable paradox would ensue. Thus, color may be said to be entirely objective.

[forrestcupp]

Schrodinger, although he was the creator of the mathematics and interpretations of Quantum mechanics, stated that at the fundamental level the same experience is shared between two observers, otherwise an a outstanding and unresolvable paradox would ensue. Thus, color may be said to be entirely objective.
So actual color is objective, but the perception of color may be subjective.

How did they find out that a certain color may be perceived differently by 2 observers?

[koenn]

How did they find out that a certain color may be perceived differently by 2 observers?
because there's no way of verifying that it's perceived identically.
If I "see" a given wavelenght and call it 'red', and you see the same wavelenght and also call it red, that still doesn't mean we're actually seeing the same color.
How your brain interprets the wavelength might be different from mine, even though we use the same label ('red') to describe/name it.

[forrestcupp]

because there's no way of verifying that it's perceived identically.
If I "see" a given wavelenght and call it 'red', and you see the same wavelenght and also call it red, that still doesn't mean we're actually seeing the same color.
How your brain interprets the wavelength might be different from mine, even though we use the same label ('red') to describe/name it.

I misread what it said. I thought they actually proved an instance where it happened.

[LaRoza]

I misread what it said. I thought they actually proved an instance where it happened.

Go shopping with a woman...:)

[handy]

All human experience is subjective!