Philosophers have been fascinated by colour for centuries. The 18th century Scottish empiricist John Locke observed that although everyone (we'll exclude
the colourblind and the tetrachromatic as these conditions had yet to be diagnosed) are able to make the same colour discriminations, it does not necessarily follow from that observation that we are all having the same colour experiences. How do we know, he pondered, that you and I are experiencing the same colour, even though we both refer to that experience as “blue”.
Now if a person was going around seeing “blue” where everybody else saw “yellow” that would show up pretty quickly. In fact, some rare forms of colourblindness present like this and are easily spotted. But in one particular case, the case of a completely inverted spectrum, it would be impossible to tell whether a person was experiencing colour as we understand it or the complete reverse. Even worse, it might be your own internal experience of colour (your own ‘qualia’ in the philosophical jargon) that is inverse to everybody else's and you would never know.
Obviously, this got academic philosophy into a flap for several centuries. The more scientifically minded proposed ever more complex behavioural tests for spectrum inversion only to meet counter-proposals of different accounts of how spectrum inversion might manifest. More theoretical philosophers used the argument to oppose various strands of physicalism and behaviourist accounts of human psychology.
Ultimately, the idea fell out of fashion. The 20th Century philosophical superstar Ludwig Wittgenstein took the attitude, “So what if your red doesn't look like my red,” and everybody relaxed for a bit. It was pointed out in this century that a behaviourally undetectable inverted musical spectrum - a variant of inverted qualia - was an impossibility because low notes are detectable as vibrations. Inverted colour spectrum theory is thought likely to topple along similar lines as our scientific instruments become more subtle.
We take colour seriously at Colour Print. We pride ourselves on providing the highest quality print on time at competitive prices. So even if your qualia are inverted, you will be sure to see crisp definition from our quality litho and digital services. Call us on 01603 488001 and let us know how we can help.