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Prospects for Naturalizing Color

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Alistair Isaac
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Abstract

Paul Churchland has recently offered a novel argument for the “objective reality” of color. The strategy he employs to make this argument is an instance of a more general research program for interpreting perceptual content, “domain-portrayal semantics.” In the first half of the article, I point out some features of color vision that complicate Churchland's conclusion, in particular, the context-sensitive and inferential nature of color perception. In the second half, I examine and defend the general research program, concluding it is naturalistic in a minimal sense and should be of interest to naturalists and nonnaturalists alike.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , December 2009 , pp. 902 - 914
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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