Topic > Color Realism and Why Nothing Has Color by James Landesman

An atom may have no color, but once many atoms come together and are stacked and ordered in the right way, they can start to show color. Color, therefore, is a property of relatively complex objects. Emergent colors do not play a role in color science, especially if a single atom has no color. They satisfy the bias in favor of color realism. The biggest critics of color skepticism are ordinary people. They are a little outraged to see some denying something that seems so basic. They think if they see colors they must be there. Therefore, for most proponents of color skepticism it is impossible because people are so convinced that color exists even before the color skepticism argument is presented. The patchy world argument helps defend color skepticism. If one went through life seeing spots everywhere, one would think that spots really exist in the universe. However, if this person went to an eye doctor and discovered that there are impurities in his eyes that make the world seem spotty, this person would agree that his eyes are deceived