The power of color

Marmodoro, Anna; Grasso, Matteo

Abstract

Are colors features of objects “out there in the world” or are they features of our inner experience and only “in our head?” Color perception has been the focus of extensive philosophical and scientific debate. In this paper we discuss the limitations of the view that Chalmers’ (2006) has characterized as Primitivism, and we develop Marmodoro’s (2006) Constitutionalism further, to provide a metaphysical account of color perception in terms of causal powers. The result is Power-based Constitutionalism, the view that colors are (multi-track and multi-stage) powers of objects, whose (full) manifestations depend on the mutual manifestation of relevant powers of perceivers and the perceived objects being co-realized in mutual interaction. After a presentation of the tenets of Power-based Constitutionalism, we evaluate its strengths in contrast to two other recent power-based accounts: John Heil’s (2003, 2012) powerful qualities view and Max Kistler’s (2017) multi-track view.

Citation

Marmodoro, A., & Grasso, M. (2020). The power of color. American Philosophical Quarterly, 57(1), 65-78

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 30, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Oct 24, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 1, 2021
• Journal: American Philosophical Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0003-0481
• Electronic ISSN: 2152-1123
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 57
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 65-78
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1286873
• Publisher URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48570646