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Social construction of concepts (was Re: Color constancy)

Larry Smith wrote:

But you haven't made a case for it varying from person to person
(assuming they have the same chemicals in their retina).

Why would you perceive a different color than I do under identical
circumstances?

Suppose the chemistry in your retina is dramatically different
from the chemistry in my retina, when we are looking at grass.
This would not prevent us from using the same word, green,
while referring to sensations.
Ludwik Kowalski

It strikes me that we learn to use a certain word in response to a personal
sensation. Our sensations need not be the same, just reproduceable. If
Ludwik could see through my eyes with his brain, it could well be that my
green apples, to him, are yellow. But this would not matter because the
concept of color and of individual colors is constructed socially. We see
this in the previous note about the diff between Japanese green and blue
and the corresponding American green and blue. We see it also in the
difference between the number of colors discerned in the visual spectrum by
different cultures.

So, could it be that electrons are social constructions originated in the
science sub-culture of our society?

Just wondering...

Dewey


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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)426-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)426-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)426-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper: GHB, Uilleann

"As a result of modern research in physics, the ambition and hope,
still cherished by most authorities of the last century, that physical
science could offer a photographic picture and true image of reality
had to be abandoned." --M. Jammer in Concepts of Force, 1957.

"If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make
reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish
what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense
to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what
reality is independent of a theory."--S. Hawking in Black Holes
and Baby Universes, 1993.
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