the wonder of the colour orange

 

I’ve started reading Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder again, and I think it’s going to be one of those books I will definitely get a lot more out of on the second reading, compared to when I first tackled it in my late teens/early 20’s.

 

For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a journey through the history of philosophy as seen through the eyes of a 14 year old girl. Her philosophical brain is awakened with two questions: who are you? where does the world come from?

 

Already the first few pages have left me spending all of today in sneaky contemplation about the wonder of the world.

 

As newborns, we are launched into this world full of wonder and jaw-dropping amazement, but through repetition and through others’ nonchalance at our exclamations of wonder (and a little through science), we learn to accept the magic as normal everyday things, and eventually lose our sense of wonder altogether.

 

We are no longer amazed by such things as a world hurtling through space, grass growing out of the ground seemingly of it’s own accord, or flying birds.

 

We don’t question the ‘how’ or ‘why’ enough.

 

Tonight I chopped up a pumpkin that was beyond orange, like supercharged orange, and wondered how it was that I knew it was orange. I just see this particular colour and call it orange, because that’s what I was taught in school. I learnt to associate a certain colour of the spectrum with the word ‘orange’.

 

But what if someone else sees that pumpkin, calls it orange, but they’re actually seeing my version of purple? They label it orange because they were also taught to associate that particular word with that particular colour.

 

We just accept what we’re told. “That colour is orange” but could it be that Joe Blow sees orange as my purple and I see his purple as my green, and we both see yellow as someone else’s red?

 

Sure there are scientific things like spectrums and wavelengths and cornea whatevers, but is there a way to know whether our individual perceptions have any influence on how we see colours?

 

I mean, apparently pigeons can see ultraviolet light. How do they translate that in their little bird brains? Maybe their perception of ultraviolet light is really just similar to our perception of the colour brown?

 

As much as you could get scientific and talk about the eye receiving signals, it still comes down to those signals being sent to a brain which has been programmed a certain way. Surely that means there’s room for difference?

 

If that’s the case, then there’s room for difference in everything else we see too. Maybe nothing we are looking at in this world is actually what we think we’re looking at.

 

Curious.