Philosophical analysis demonstrates valid physical reducers for perceived colors via postreceptoral sensitivity functions, suggesting perceptual externalism remains defensible.
Key Points
The aim is to counter objections against color reductionism that claim reducing colors to physical properties improperly turns them into abstract relations to numerical quantities.
Conceptual philosophical critique of prior arguments against color reductionism.
Reformulation of color reducers using direct wavelength-based postreceptoral sensitivity functions rather than discrete categories of long-, medium-, and short-wavelength light.
Demonstrates that earlier anti-reductionist objections rely on an incidental and avoidable formulation of color reducers.
Shows that defining reducers directly in terms of postreceptoral sensitivity to wavelength preserves structural matching with perceived colors without reducing them to mere mathematical relations.
Concludes that perceptual externalism remains a viable philosophical position regarding color.