Color comparisons and interpersonal variation

Hansen, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5074-1075 (2017) Color comparisons and interpersonal variation. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 8 (4). pp. 809-826. ISSN 1878-5158 doi: 10.1007/s13164-016-0323-2

Abstract/Summary

An important challenge to color objectivists, who hold that statements concerning color are made true or false by objective (non-subject-involving) facts, is the argument from interpersonal variation in where normal observers locate the unique hues. Recently, an attractive objectivist response to the argument has been proposed that draws on the semantics of gradable adjectives and which does not require defending the idea that there is a single correct location for each of the unique hues (Gómez-Torrente, 2016). In Hansen (2015), I argued that the recent objectivist response doesn’t apply to comparative occurrences of color adjectives, so a revised, comparative, version of the argument from interpersonal variation remains a powerful objection to certain types of objectivism. In this paper, I address several unsatisfactory objectivist replies to the comparative version of the argument from interpersonal variation, and offer what I think is a more plausible objectivist reply to the comparative argument from interpersonal variation.