History of Philosophy Workshop: Hamid Taieb (Humboldt University), "Two Phenomenological Views on Truths about Colors"

Abstract: This paper explores theories of colours in early phenomenology, that is, in Franz Brentano and his students, including Edmund Husserl, and in the early students of Husserl. It focuses on two alternative views found among early phenomenologists on how statements about colours taken as primitive physical entities can be true without accepting naive realism about colours: Platonism and conceptual analysis. The paper first explains why early phenomenologists regard colours as physical properties and why they regard them as primitive (physical) properties. It then looks at the two alternatives mentioned for grounding truths about colours. After presenting them, it criticizes both options in favour of naive realism.