Word Association with color? What is color?

Question

Could it be possible that different people call things the same colour but they might actually see different colours.

Like we all know that a tree has a brown trunk and green leaves but someone might see it with purple leaves and an orange trunk. But no matter what we see it as we still call it the same because that's how we learnt them.

Have you ever thought about this?

It's a pretty hard concept to grasp, I wonder if there's any scientific proof we all see the same colors.

Answer 1

I believe that the evidence exists that the cones of our eyes respond in very similar ways.  It is possible that some genetic mutation may have occurred that causes some individuals to have cones that react to different frequencies of light but such mutations are evidently rare enough that I did not find anything about them.

Answer 2

That i can name every red thing in sight and you agree that those things are red, does not mean that we see the same thing. Perception is unique, if anything at all and thus we cannot see the same thing. Science will tell you otherwise, explaining that light induced in the eye by ether waves of a certain frequency determine colour.

Answer 3

i've thought of that. i think alot of people have. i don't think they could ever scientifically prove that each of us sees green or yellow the same way.

Answer 4

sense

Answer 5

I have thought about this before and the only way we could find out would be to look through another person's eyes. We all interpret information differently. We may have the same sensory equipment and methods but it is our brain's decoding of the information that determines what we see. The fact that we all call brown, brown, and can distinguish it similarly makes brown a universal colour.

Answer 6

everyone sees colors diferently or at least different shades. my purple could look like your green or my blue could be your red. but scientificly color is the amount of light that is reflected off of an object. using tools we haved named the different amounts of light that is reflected. but every eye takes in light differently. we would have to be able to see through someone elses eyes to be perfectly shure.

Answer 7

What you suppose is a real possibility.  I am not color blind but I see different colors of red out of my two eyes.  I first noticed this when I was driving at night while in college and was stopped at a traffic light.  I closed one eye and then the other to look at the bright red traffic light and noticed the difference.  In one eye it looked slightly more orange than the other.  I have taken color blind test and passed them.

John Dalton was color blind in one eye and not the other and willed his eyes to science after his death in the early 1800s.  For a long time color blindness was called Daltonism.

The differences are probably attributable to the distribution of the cones in the eyes.

Whether there could be a difference in what colors are "seen" in the mind is an entirely different question and also up for grabs.  I suppose that some fMRI or the latest diffusion spectrum analysis might provide us with some clues.  Would be a worthwhile experiment to perform and it would answer an unanswered phenomenological question.  

It is rare but even some blind people "see" colors in their minds.

Answer 8

Even if we see the same colors we will have different thoughts and memories associated.  We have different perceptions and feelings.We don't know exactly how someone else perceives color.We might feel something and think something completely different than they are feeling and thinking. But then again maybe we can share a feeling together. Maybe God can send us the same feelings and perceptions at times.

Answer 9

color is a figment of our imagination. we see colors so the human race could be complete. we need to see color for reaction and for beauty.

Answer 10

We don't all see the same color...i.e. color blind people.  Color is temperature, and pigment.  Just like philosophy...it's perception.