El ¿fisicalismo acerca de los colores¿ considera que los colores son propiedades físicas de los objetos. Durante más de tres siglos esa posición filosófica ha estado bloqueada por considerarse que no era científicamente seria. En este artículo se hace una lectura crítica de la vigencia de esa grave acusación para concluir que la supuesta incompatibilidad entre la mejor ciencia y el fisicalismo debe ser, cuanto menos, revisada.

In this article I provide some reasons to justify why the preferable ontological account about colors is that which respects the highest number of beliefs contained in the so-called default position, keeping in mind the relative weight of each one of them. The full system of associated beliefs about colors contained in the default position is also offered.

It remains highly controversial whether Plato sympathized with the existence of chromatic Forms. I argue that the naturalistic interpretation of Plato’s conception of colors as flames does not depend on his approval of their existence.

Algunos de los últimos avances en el debate sobre la naturaleza de los colores han contribuido a una mejor comprensión de la doctrina platónica sobre los colores. Siguiendo esa estela revisionista, en la primera parte del artículo presento una interpretación de corte realista de dicha doctrina. En la segunda, argumento por qué ésta no puede intitularse más finamente, ni como fisicista ni como primitivista. A mi entender, ese ejercicio exegético permite justipreciar el valor contemporáneo de la doctrina de los colores (...) de Platón, ya que las incipientes propuestas realistas pueden ahora afirmar legítimamente que el antecedente histórico que parecía faltarles se encuentra, precisamente, en los diálogos platónico. /// Recent developments in the area of the metaphysics of color have led to a revisión of the interpretation of Plato's doctrine. Following this revisionist trend, I present a realist interpretation of his doctrine on colors and argüe why it cannot be further specified as either physicalist or primitivist. This exegetic exercise allows the appraisal of the contemporary valué of Plato's doctrine on color. Incipient realist theories of color can now legitimately claim that the historical antecedent that they seem to lack can be found, precisely, in the platonic dialogues. (shrink)

The debate concerning the reality of qualia has stagnated. The dominant functionalist approach to qualia concentrates largely on the filter-strategy as applied to color experiences. The filter-strategy takes color experiences as material-to-be-functionally-filtered under the assumption that qualia as such cannot be filtered. However, despite the speculative efforts made in this direction, the debate between phenomenalists and representationalists remains unresolved. The main idea of this paper is to show that the lack of success settling “the qualia war” has to be understood (...) as a result of the mischaracterization of colors as a material-to-be-functionally-filtered. (shrink)

El debate entre representacionistas y fenomenistas acerca del realismo de los qualia parece no avanzar. Este artículo defiende una solución que no es ni representacionista ni fenomenista. En contra de los representacionistas mantenemos que no todo contenido perceptual es reducible a su contenido representacional. En contra de los fenomenistas sostenemos que todo contenido perceptual es contenido intencional. Negamos así la existencia de los qualia, de aquellos, al menos, caracterizados de manera más estándar. Finalmente, mostramos que nuestra propuesta --situada entre el (...) representacionismo y el fenomenismo-- no ha sido explorada, porque se ha asumido, erróneamente, que todo contenido no representacional debe ser contenido no intencional. \\\ The debate between representationalists and phenomenalists on the reality of qualia has stagnated. The present article argues for a solution that is neither representationalist nor phenomenalist. Unlike the representationalists, we hold that not all perceptual content is reducible to its representational content. Against the phenomenalists, we claim that all perceptual content is intentional content. We therefore discard the existence of qualia, at least in their standard guise. Finally, we show that our intermediate proposal has not been explored because until now all non-representational content has been erroneously understood to be non-intentional content. (shrink)

Physicalism claims that colors are physical properties of physical objects. For more than three centuries this philosophical stand has been denied because it was considered not to be “scientifically serious”. In this article we offer a critical review of the history of this accusation to conclude that the apparent incompatibility between the best science and physicalism must be, at least, re-examined.

Introduction: Experiential deconstructive inquiry -- Foundational philosophies and spiritual methods -- Non-duality in Advaita Vedanta and Zen Buddhism -- Ontological differences and non-duality -- Meditative inquiry, questioning, and dialoguing as a means to spiritual insight -- The undoing or deconstruction of dualistic conceptions -- Advaita Vedanta : philosophical foundations and deconstructive strategies -- Sources of the tradition -- Upaniads that art thou (Tat Tvam Asi) -- Gauapda (c.7th century) : no bondage, no liberation -- Aakara (c.7th-8th century) : there is (...) no apprehender different from this apprehension to apprehend it -- Modern and contemporary masters -- Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) : who am I? -- H.W.L Poonja (1910-1997) : you have to do nothing to be who you are! -- Gangaji (b. 1942) : you are that! -- Advaita Vedanta summary : nothing ever happens -- Zen Buddhism : philosophical foundations and deconstructive strategies -- Sources of the tradition -- The Lakvatra Sutra and the Vajracchedik Prajñpramit Sutra all things ... are not independent of each other and not two -- Ngrjuna (c.113-213) : Sasra is Nirva -- Eihei Dgen (1200-1253) : if I am already enlightened, why must I practice -- Contemporary masters -- Ekai Korematsu (b. 1948) : return to the spine -- Hgen Yamahata (b. 1935) : why not now -- Zen Buddhism summary : neither being nor non-being is to be taken hold of -- Deconstructive techniques and dynamics of experiential undoing -- Deconstructive techniques common to both traditions -- The teacher-student dynamic -- Key deconstructive techniques -- Unfindability analysis -- Bringing everything back to the here and now -- Paradoxical problems -- Negation -- Dynamics of experiential undoing -- Non-dual experiential space -- Experiential mapping : practitioners in the space -- Experiential undoing in Advaita Vedanta -- Experiential undoing in Zen Buddhism -- Conclusion: Deconstruction of reified awareness. (shrink)