Colour vision: a study in cognitive science and the philosophy of perception

Abstract

"Thompson provides an accessible review of the current scientific and philosophical discussions of colour vision and is vital reading for all cognitive scientists and philosophers whose interests touch upon this central area.Colour fascinates all of us, and scientists and philosophers have sought to understand the true nature of colour vision for many years. In recent times, investigations into colour vision have been one of the success stories of cognitive science, for each discipline within the field - neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence, and philosophy - has contributed significantly to our understanding of colour. Evan Thompson's book is a major contribution to this interdisciplinary project. Colour Vision provides an accessible review of the current scientific and philosophical discussions of colour vision. Thompson steers a course between the subjective and objective positions on colour, arguing for a relational account. This account develops a novel 'ecological' approach to colour vision in cognitive science and the philosophy of perception. It is vital reading for all cognitive scientists and philosophers whose interests touch upon this central area" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents

The Received View. The Newtonian heritage -- Primary and secondary qualities -- The problem-space of the received view --Colour Vision : Recent Theories and Results. Approaches to colour vision -- The phenomenal structure of colour -- Physiology and psychophysics -- Computational colour vision -- Levels of explanation and colour space -- Naturalistic Ontologies. Explanation and descriptive vocabularies -- Computational objectivism -- Neurophysiological subjectivism -- Beyond objectivism and subjectivism -- The Comparative Argument. Introducing comparative colour vision -- Comparative colour spaces -- The evolution and ecology of colour vision -- The comparative argument -- The Ecological View. The ecological level -- Perception and the ecological level -- Where is colour? -- Visual Experience and the Ecological View. Sensationalism -- Cognitivism : Dennett's disqualification of qualia -- Visual experience, science, and the ecological view.