Clarifying ostensible definition by the logical possibility of inverted spectrum

Modern Philosophy 2 (1989)
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Abstract

How "red", "green" were defined? Through analyzing how two children with congenitally inverted color sensations corresponding to red flags and green grass accept their grand mothers’ teaching about colors, the paper get opposite conclusions against logical empiricism. The “red” and “green” and other names of properties of objects were defined by objective physical properties (or together with behavior, such as in defining “beauty”), instead our sensations. So language directly points to things in themselves passing through sensations and presentative world. It is not that things in themselves are unknowable, but that sensations and presentative world cannot be exactly described by daily language

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Chenguang Lu
Liaoning Technical University

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