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The Attractions of “Object Colors”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2025

William A. Sharp Open the ORCID record for William A. Sharp [Opens in a new window]
William A. Sharp*
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Collaborateur scientifique, Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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Email: william.sharp@unige.ch
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Abstract

Three popular objections to reductionism about color, experience as of impossible colors, the unary/binary distinction, and structural mismatch, are issues just, I argue, for the (probably default) version of reductionism according to which colors reduce to sets of surface spectral reflectances. They are not problems for the version on which colors are dispositions to reflect coarse-grained intensities of light are—what in colorimetry are called “object colors.” This article sets out to demonstrate the virtues of the latter reductionism.

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Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 92 , Issue 3 , July 2025 , pp. 732 - 749
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

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