What is the colour of a ripe orange in the dark?
The answer seems easy but I don't think we'd agree:
1) The colour of an orange is always orange, because that's its colour.
2) The colour of anything in the dark is black.
So the question is, does an object have a colour, or does it depend on the circumstances? Note the argument about the blue or gold dress 1 from 2015 seemed to hinge on the dress having a colour regardless of how I perceive it.
It's a variation on an old question, but is more relevant: I don't care about a tree that no one sees fall, but I want to know what I see. I want to know what is.
Either way the implications are huge.
For example if #1 is right, then people who are colour-blind are perceiving wrong. Then consider that everyone is colour-blind; we only see a small representation of the entire spectrum of light. No one has perceived the true colour of an orange. And this implies that the Earth is not green.
If #2 is right, then there is no true colour of an orange. It will look like a different colour in sunlight than in fluorescent light, and it will actually be a different colour in different light. You can talk about the color of an orange, but just in a general way. And this implies that the Earth is not green.
- 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress