Do Colours Exist?

Colours are pretty important. And not just because they make our world nice. How we perceive them matters. 

In fact, it’s something thinkers have wrestled with since ye olden days. 

So, is an apple red?

Well, not really, no. At least if, by the question, we mean: does an apple possess a kind of inherent redness? 

It wasn’t until 1623 that someone suggested colours might just be names for our experiences and not qualities of objects.

That someone was Galileo, and modern scientists agree with him. 

Today, we understand colours as how our brains interpret light interacting with other things. They don’t exist independently. 

And now, experts even think that it’s unlikely two people ever see exactly the same colours. Because every person’s visual system is unique, and so are their perceptions.

So why is the perception of colour such a hot topic?

Well, if colours are not fixed like they seem, what about the other stuff we perceive? 

Thinking about the nature of colours makes us reconsider the world around us — raising bigger questions about reality itself.