David Katz's Phenomenology of Colour and Light

Abstract David Katz was an empirical psychologist with a deep and abiding interest in phenomenology. This paper reconstructs his theory of colour and colour perception, central to which is a distinctive account of the perception of illumination and empty space. Katz's views were an important influence on both the Gestalt psychologists and phenomenologists such as Merleau‐Ponty, and have contemporary relevance to ongoing debates about the nature of colour and colour perception. Reflection on Katz's theory of colour and colour perception provides a way of understanding whether, and in what sense, Katz was a phenomenologist; it thereby provides a perspective on wider questions about the nature of phenomenology.