Vol. 23 No. 18 · 20 September 2001
pages 25-26 | 3262 words
What is it about lemons?
Thomas Nagel
- The Quest for Reality: Subjectivism and the Metaphysics of Colour by Barry Stroud
Oxford, 228 pp, £19.99, January 2000, ISBN 0 19 513388 9
This strange and absorbing book sets out to undermine the central metaphysical ambition which has dominated philosophy since the 17th century – that of reaching what Bernard Williams calls an ‘absolute conception of reality’. The aim is to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the world, consistent with modern science, which distinguishes between what exists objectively, independent of our minds, and what is merely subjective – due to the effects of the world on our minds and our responses to it.
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Letters
Vol. 23 No. 19 · 4 October 2001
From George Hornby
What both Thomas Nagel and Barry Stroud appear to overlook (LRB, 20 September) is that 'yellow' is defined by a range of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. We can distinguish between different sections of the small part of the spectrum which is visible to us and we now call these sections 'colours'. Whether my 'yellow' is what another man sees as yellow we cannot tell, but most helpfully we can distinguish our own 'yellow' from the other so-called colours we discern. Although man needs to be present to call it 'yellow', that part of the electromagnetic spectrum exists independently of man.
George Hornby
Bournemouth
Vol. 23 No. 20 · 18 October 2001
From Greville Healey
It is annoying when people assume that professional philosophers, just because they are philosophers, are especially wise. Equally annoying is when people assume that professional philosophers, just because they ask questions about apparently obvious things, are especially stupid. Does George Hornby (Letters, 4 October) really think that Thomas Nagel and Barry Stroud have never heard of the electromagnetic spectrum?
Greville Healey
London W8
From Sheila Wright
Neither Thomas Nagel's piece nor George Hornby's letter considers the yellowness of the lemon from the point of view of the lemon tree, which might reasonably be considered to have more interest in the matter than we have. The bright colour of its fruit is essential to its reproductive strategy, ensuring that the animals it needs to distribute its seeds notice it has selected from the variety of metabolites present in the skin of the fruit those that reflect the light of a wavelength attractive to any animal that relishes its flavour and will carry it away, eat it and sow the seedling where it has a chance of developing out of the shadow of its parent. Colour in nature has nothing to do with human perceptions or sensibilities, except in so far as we, too, are fruit-eating animals and like to pick out from among the leaves these attractive signals of edibility.
Sheila Wright
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
