Folk core beliefs about color

Roberts, Pendaran and Schmidtke, Kelly ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5993-0358 (2019) Folk core beliefs about color. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 10 (4). pp. 849-869. ISSN 1878-5158

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Abstract

Johnston famously argued that the colors are, more or less inclusively speaking, dispositions to cause color experiences by arguing that this view best accommodates his five proposed core beliefs about color. Since then, Campbell, Kalderon, Gert, Benbaji, and others, have all engaged with at least some of Johnston's proposed core beliefs in one way or another. Which propositions are core beliefs is ultimately an empirical matter. We investigate whether Johnston’s proposed core beliefs are, in fact, believed by assessing the agreement/disagreement of non-philosophers with them. Two experiments are run each with large sample sizes, the second designed to address criticisms of the first. We find that non-philosophers mostly agree with the proposed core beliefs, but that they agree with some more than others.