ABSTRACT

From David Hume’s famous puzzle about "the missing shade of blue," to current research into the science of colour, the topic of colour is an incredibly fertile region of study and debate, cutting across philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and aesthetics, as well as psychology. Debates about the nature of our experience of colour and the nature of colour itself are central to contemporary discussion and argument in philosophy of mind and psychology, and philosophy of perception.

This outstanding Handbook contains 29 specially commissioned contributions by leading philosophers and examines the most important aspects of philosophy of colour. It is organized into six parts:

  • The Importance of Colour to Philosophy
  • The Science and Spaces of Colour
  • Colour Phenomena
  • Colour Ontology
  • Colour Experience and Epistemology
  • Language, Categories, and Thought.

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Colour is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of mind and psychology, epistemology, metaphysics, and aesthetics, as well as for those interested in conceptual issues in the psychology of colour.

part I|98 pages

The importance of colour to philosophy

part II|36 pages

Interlude

chapter 9|17 pages

Colour spaces

part III|128 pages

Colour phenomena

chapter 10|16 pages

Unique hues and colour experience

chapter 13|18 pages

Spectrum inversion

chapter 14|13 pages

Interspecies variations

chapter 15|12 pages

Colour illusion 1

chapter 16|16 pages

Colour constancy

part IV|80 pages

Colour ontology

chapter 17|12 pages

Objectivist reductionism

chapter 18|12 pages

Primitivist objectivism

chapter 19|16 pages

Colour relationalism

chapter 20|15 pages

Monism and pluralism

chapter 21|10 pages

Mentalist approaches to colour

chapter 22|13 pages

Eliminativism 1

part V|72 pages

Colour experience and epistemology

part VI|54 pages

Language, categories, and thought