Another look at color primitivism

Abstract

This article is on a precise kind of color primitivism, 'ostensivism.' This is the view that it is in the nature of the colors that they are phenomenal, non-reductive, structural, categorical properties. First, I differentiate ostensivism from other precise forms of primitivism. Next, I examine the core belief 'Revelation,' and propose a revised version, which, unlike standard statements, is compatible with a yet unstated but plausible core belief: roughly, that there are interesting things to be discovered about the nature of the colors. Finally, I show that ostensivism is the only view on color that can accommodate both proposed core beliefs.

Folk Core Beliefs about Color

“…The last item, 'When we look at a red object, we perceive the characteristic of the object that is red,' was used to capture a central aspect of Revelation simply: that the metaphysical identity of red is available to perception. This formulation is clearly perceptual and similar to that in Roberts (2018): 'The colors as we see them in perception are the intrinsic natures of the colors' (i.e. what they are metaphysically).…”

“…Our items were just meant to capture Revelation as a somewhat amorphous and imprecise notion. Future work could attempt to empirically test the separate versions of revelation proposed in the literature (Roberts 2018). Revelation, amorphously understood, is not, given our results, a particularly strong core belief comparatively speaking: taking the composite of the 6 Experiment 2 items, it is the weakest candidate besides Explanation.…”

“…Is it just the intrinsic and necessary properties of something, or is it something stronger, the essential properties of something, where this requires a more fine-grained notion than necessity (Fine 1994)? Roberts (2018) uses 'intrinsic nature' to mean what something is most fundamentally. We could go on, but the point should be clear: there is no one precise understanding available.…”

“…Perhaps not. 14 Revelation is the most contentious of the core beliefs proposed by Johnston with many different interpretations of it discussed (Byrne and Hilbert 2007b;Kalderon 2007;Gert 2008;Campbell 2005;Allen 2011;Roberts 2018). Our items were just meant to capture Revelation as a somewhat amorphous and imprecise notion.…”

“…Revelation is the most obscure of Johnston's core beliefs, with disagreement regarding its correct expression (e.g. see Roberts 2018). As such, there is no definitive statement of this core belief, and so we only intended to capture Revelation as a somewhat amorphous and imprecise notion.…”