Color Differentiation?

Question

How do we, humans, know that each color we have been taught, isn't just our eyes' own interpretation of that specific color.

Ex. we have all been taught that healthy grass is usually green, but how do we know that what I see as green isn't seen by others as I would think would be blue. We have all been taught that that color we would see is green, but how are we sure the color we see is always the same in every human. This could possibly be why people all have spefcific colors that they like and dislike, because all people's eyes have different spectrums of color. Its complex, but if you understand what I am saying, please try and validate if this can be proved/disproved.

Answer 1

There is an answe trhat I gave a while ago that fits this question as well. It is below...

Firstly ,colour is a frequency of light, what our brains interperet as colour is nothing more than the signal generated by the photoreceptive cell in the retina when a photon of light hits it.

Secondly, there is the issue of forms, as disscussed in platos work in his allegory of the cave. While he was talking of our perception of the society around us the concept explain very well the workings of the brain. The brain will interpret a signal from one of the sences, in this case vision, and compare it to past experiance to figure out what is going on. When we are young the signal recived form the eye is married with the processed signal recieved from the ear of someone telling us that the colour we are looking at is blue. That is how we learn colour, sound, everything. It does not mean however that what we see is the same thing, it only means that we have aggreed that the responce generated by the retina is called blue. If we have been taught wrongly, say the person teaching us was colour blind then we will percive that same colour discrepancy even though we may not be colour blind.

Thirdly, there is the physical malfunction or malformation of the eye, as in colour blindness, or damage, as in sun spots or light patches in vision due to over exposure.

Therefore we cannot be sure that we are seeing the same thing, just that we agree that we are seeing the same thing.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Once I was traveling back to Texas from New York. I was driving through Maryland and it was a beautiful sunshiny day. I opened my moon roof and opened the windows, drove my 4 on the floor, dual exhaust little V6 Contour down an open stretch of highway feeling pretty high on life and the beauty of it when suddenly an overwhelming sense of doom and gloom overcame me. It was as if the trees and small animals were yelling in pain. A few miles further up the road, I saw smoke and not long after a fire spread throughout a wooded area. I know this sounds like BS, but I swear it happens to me a lot this sort of thing.

I think, for me, I see color with my spirit. I know that I am more in tune with that than many are in life. Colors make me happy and sad. That's why when we have a lot of rain and I have to see the sun at least four times a week. If I don't, I get so depressed. I need that serotonin that bright color provides. That's how I tell color differentiation. My heart.

Answer 3

I agree with you that colors differentiate well among the individual's personality. What i see from a specific color may not be the same color with you. The color red of a specific object may be red to the majority as they see it but others may see red as not really the color because what they perceived for a specific color is not as the same as they are. I also subscribe with your statement indeed each person has it's own spectrum of colors. That's why the taste in color of every person differs. Although they may be talking of the same shade of color. Indeed it really have something to do in the eyes of the beholder.

Answer 4

great question. i asked this same one years ago...hmmm. Do you feel that you are different from other people and that you are special but nobody seems to notice?The answer is that you are special as you have demonstrated, by asking the question, the ability of man to truly reflect upon himself from an objective point of veiw. Not everyone has this ability, no matter what they say. It is a rare gift. and back to your question, i think you have something there. can it be proven though? i don't know? but if you find some use for the findings then maybe you will find the way to prove them. try looking at the problem at it's solution and work your way backwards. you may find answers to not only your question, but also to questions that have not even been asked yet.

Answer 5

What a great question...in all my years I would have never come up with your question..I think it's terrific because knowing someone who was color blind ....and needed help getting dressed for work...I understand now what you are saying...."seeing color" is very questionable...depending who you ask...we take for granted that every person sees the same color..but now that I remember someone who didn't see what I saw ...no wonder he put on a crazy outfit...it was not his fault he thought it was fine! If he went into a office and all the workers were also colorblind then he would really be COOL...but to the rest he would be very odd. From now on I'm going to be thinking about this....when I come across something for example that I want to buy...if I ask someone's opinion they might be seeing me in a different color!????
Enjoyed your question...
Mama Jazzy Geri

Answer 6

Great question.

I have always wondered about it and pondered over it.... my belief is that....

It is certainly possible that each person perceives a particular colour in a different way.... meaning the sight process may not be identical or consistent in each person. That inconsistency does not matter for our communications with each other.... what really matters is the consistency within each person... meaning if any person begins to see a particular colour differently at different times depending on the angle of sight or for any other reason, then it would have created huge confusion for each of us as well as made it impossible for us to discuss colours with each other.

Answer 7

Five colors blind the eye.
Five notes deafen the ear.
Five flavors makes the palate go stale.
Too much activity deranges the mind.
Too much wealth causes crime.

The Master acts on what she feels and not what she sees.
She shuns the latter, and prefers to seek the former.

Answer 8

Not everyone see colour as the same... thats why there is such thing as colour blindness...

color is due to the dispersion of white light... (different wavelengths) but im sure people have the same perception of what colour is darker and lighter than the others and thats where they base their colour scale from..

like... we all know that yellow is lighter than black... therefore we put it on the lighter side of the scale.. you know what im saying here?

Answer 9

This is a non-question.

Green is just a label we use for the mix of wavelengths reflected from grass. If I was German I would be seeing grun (mit umlaut). Exactly the same thing, but a different label. The mix of wavelengths passing through the pupil is the same, however. Those wavelengths are processed by the eye and brain. It is the wavelengths that matter, not the label.

Answer 10

i could notvalidate because im not an authority on this matter

however you are quite right; colors we see are influence by the unique structures in our eyes, so there is a possibility we see color in slighty different way