[MD] From each... to each

[craigerb at comcast.net]

David,
I went to
http://www.experience.epson.com.au/help/understandingcolour/COL_G/0504_5.htm
& looked at the 2 red color samples at the top.  Even though I don't have different words for them (they're both 'red' to me), I can discriminate between them (i.e., see the "line" between them.)  I suppose if pressed I could describe them differently (e.g., the one on the left looks more like my mother's shawl).  But it doesn't seem like knowing the meaning of "looks more like my mother's shawl" helps in the discrimination. Also, it may be that not everyone can make this discrimination.
In any event, we need to distinguish between the language itself & the training one receives in learning the language.     
Craig
-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "David M" <davidint at blueyonder.co.uk> 

> Craig 
> 
> I understand that experiments like this have been done 
> and the people without the words can't make any distinction. 
> In fact the way the brain differentiates colours may be learnt 
> and the neural pathways for colour recognition laid down whilst learning the 
> language, 
> the experimenters are still working on cracking this one. So your reality is 
> perhaps 
> more to do with philosophical assumptions than you realised. 
> 
> DM 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: 
> To: 
> Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 7:17 AM 
> Subject: Re: [MD] From each... to each 
> 
> 
> > [Arlo] 
> >> Pirsig had also written, "Similarly, Choctaw, Tunica, the Keresian Pueblo 
> >> Indians and many other people make no terminological distinction between 
> >> blue > and green." Was this because no one, biologically, among these 
> >> tribes had the 
> >> necessary receptors in their eyes to make this distinction? According to 
> >> Pirsig, it is because their culture did not value such a distinction, and 
> >> so 
> >> the language did not reflect it, and so those assimiliating the culture 
> >> do not 
> >> value it. 
> > 
> > This is a great counter-example to Arlo's theory. Show a blue card & a 
> > green card to a member of one of the afore-mentioned tribes. Then give 
> > them a deck of such cards & tell them to separate the cards that look most 
> > like the first from those that look most like the second. He or she will 
> > be able to do so DESPITE NOT HAVING A DIFFERENT WORD FOR THE TWO COLORS 
> > NOR THE CULTURE'S VALUING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THEM. Why? Because he 
> > or she experiences the difference in color. 
> > Craig 
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