I know in the field of Physics, wavelengths of light are often abbreviated to colours. This is done out of convenience, and references how they are usually perceived in everyday life.
However, by the layman's use, as was referenced by the original post, colours are a mental phenomena.
And not surprisingly, this is how my conversations with INTJs usually go. Semantics, them taking things too literally, and me taking things not literally enough. Them never giving the benefit of the doubt, me always giving it etc.
You are right that much of it comes down to semantics. Color, however, is layman's terminology. In the field of physics, more precision is usually desired, and wavelength, frequency, or energy is used. Color is thus synonomous with wavelength, just not nearly as precise.
no, he's right
think about it. dreams and hallucinations both allow you to perceive colour when there is no light. and light doesn't have colour until it hits an optic nerve, just a wavelength.
Perceptions do not rely on light. Even if we are without our eyeballs, we could still perceive things. It makes sense but I think I'm missing something here..
In a dream, one does not perceive color, one remembers it. Without our eyeballs, we would still perceive many things: sounds, smells, tastes, etc. but not the visual. Asking whether light has color before it is perceived is like asking whether a tree falling in a deserted forest makes any sound. If one considers sound to be the vibration itself, then of course it does; but if one considers sound to be the perception of that vibration, then it does not. Similarly, if one considers color to be an imprecise equivalent of wavelength, then light has that property, whether it is perceived or not.
Now, to confuse matters further: what about the idea of color where there is no light. Is a blue hat blue in a dark room? How about in a room filled with red light? The fabric of the hat still contains pigments that reflect blue and absorb other colors, so in that sense, it is still fair to call it a blue hat, but with no blue photons to be reflected, it will look black.
