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| A Philosophical Outlook | | On Color and that which cannot be put in words | | Sanjeev Sikri
This Holi while I flung colors saffron, green and pink across the faces of my friends, the thought of what a color is crossed my mind. Now we are all aware of certain things, ideas and notions that can not propositional zed (i.e. put in words). How many times has each one of us said, “I hope you understand what I am trying to say, I know my words are not making sense” or “I am unable to put it in words, its a feeling, you’ll have to experience it yourself”. It is indeed true that certain things cannot be put into words, that is they cannot be propositonalized. These things can in fact only be experienced first hand, or as we call in philosophy, the qualia of a phenomenological experience. Color too happens to be a medium of non propositional language. Define to me a red, or magenta. The only answer we arrive at is that an apple is red or magenta is like a darker pink inclined towards a purple but not really purple. So we either associate a color to an object that usually carries the same color (e.g. a black crow but there are also albino crows) or we compare it to its sibling colors (e.g. marine blue, baby pink). There is no way to put a color by itself in words. Try it! The other way round is when we associate a movement with a color. For example the color saffron is associated with the right Hindutva movement now, or the black bands worn across arms in football matches are to mark tragic occasions. The rainbow is representative of the LGBTQ+ movement. The recent controversy over Bhagat Singh’s Basanti colored turban, which is associated with the inquilab revolution of the time. With this in mind, John Locke, a 17th century British philosopher bisected every physical entity capable of perception to have two kinds of qualities. Primary and secondary (pretty simple. right? yes they are). Primary qualities are those which are intrinsic and non relational. Non- relational means that they are not altered by the perceiver, for example when we see an apple. The mass of the apple does not alter. The quantum physicist would argue against this, since the observer does play a role in quantum entanglement, lets not go there though. We are in discussion of that which is actually tangible to us. The primary qualities hence refer to the shape, size, solidity and state of motion of the object. If you can think of exceptions, congratulations, because exceptions prove the rule. Then come the secondary qualities, these are the qualities which are relational, meaning that the observer can indeed alter the sensation of these qualities. These include color, odour, taste and texture. Have you ever tasted orange juice right after brushing your teeth, it tastes awful, try it out so you can experience how secondary qualities may differ. Have you not been temporarily blinded by the darkness of the colors of the interior after basking in the spring Sun.
These secondary qualities are dependent on the observer and hence differ for each individual in a subjective manner. As we were contemplating on the difference between propositional and non-propositional, the primary qualities can be scaled and put in propositions but the secondary qualities are non- propositional and not measured in the best of manners. Take the color of the colors, tastes and odours, we are unable to propositionalize them in words so as to wholly convey them as they are in them selves or as Kant called it Ding an Sich. So next time we say “I am unable to put it in words”, it is probably because these are the secondary qualities. However, one must try their level best to put in words the primary qualities, such as the moving of a train or the weight of their head on your shoulders. In case of secondary qualities, we may turn poetic, like the odour of her may feel like a mild summer breeze or the color of his eyes may be divinely blue. Poetic description may not be the most apt picturization of the secondary quality but it does convey that which cannot be put simply. And the knowledge which cannot be put simply in words can either be experienced themselves or be found in the words of the writers like Shakespeare and Dostoevsky or the paintings of Van Gogh or even the graphs of an economics student.
Ludwig Wittgenstein on the end of his Tractatus writes “Weherof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”, I as poet disagree, but you may choose your way. |
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