How do you explain colour to a blind person?

yes

is the person COMPLETELY blind?

Usually they can make out some extremely faint shapes and often some muddy colours too.

So it wouldnt be an impossible concept

they might not be able to experience colour but i am sure they can understand it

You should speak V E R Y S L O W L Y A N D L O U D L Y

Very difficult to explain a visual phenomenon to a person without vision. Analogies to different musical tones, temperatures, textures, moods, tastes, etc may provide some limited understanding but I'm not sure they can ever really "get it".

:D Paulie

colour is only an invention of humans anyway.

You'd describe it in terms of things that blind people know exist but are always the same colour. So to say "that jumper is red" is not helpful. To say however that blood is red gives them some frame of reference. They know the smell of blood so next time they encounter blood they know what colour it is. Even if they don't know exactly what shade it is, they know it is red. So when they are told about a red chilli, whatever they've associated red with in their mid with repect to the colour of blood, they can associcate the same colour with a chilli.

Thats all colour really is to people with vision. Our brain makes the same connections only the brain does it subconsciously.

Even then, we cannot be absolutely certain that what we regard as 'red' is exactly the same as everyone else is looking at anyway

exactly.

So they'd think a red jumper smelt of blood?

Giving them an olfactory reference for a colour doesn't give them any sense of what colour is. The colour red does not smell of blood.

rustyboy, I drove my English teacher mental with the same question. I asked if the wall was really white or whether we actually just knew it as white? Of course she told me to shut the fk up and carry on reading Mansfield Park.

It must be true, how can some men/women see certain partners as lovely or not so, yet others the opposite.

slartybartfast. 09 Jan 09:57
So they'd think a red jumper smelt of blood?

Giving them an olfactory reference for a colour doesn't give them any sense of what colour is. The colour red does not smell of blood.

Strange extrapolation of my post. :S

The wall really is white.

we also percieve it as white because it is white.

The wall reflects light at the wavelength that we had called 'white' and thus is both white in perception and actuality.

Our perceptions of colour may vary. Our perceptions of everything else do.

but colours are related to temperature, so we should all see the same thing?

rusty, I don't understand what you are saying. You have said in one post that colour is a human invention then in another that a white wall both looks white and is really white. Do colours exist in the objective world or are they purely imagined iyo?

Do we all feel the same temperature? If you think we do, you've never lived with a woman.

In terms of heat maybe.

NO rustyboy, it is perceived as white. I may see it as what you call 'blue'. How will you know?

are you colour blind?

2 o'clock

whack them on the head with a hammer and then tell them the stars they are seeing are yellow and go from there....

Also, do people who have been blind all their life dream. If they do, what of?

just point

CUPRA and Rustyboy, I was just going to post a similar question to you two. :^0

I've often wondered whether what I see is the same as everyone else. Not just colours or vision, but whether sounds I hear are percieved differently by other people. It's a strange one.

don't get too deep about it. The most obvious answer is usually the true one. We all pervieve colour and sound the same way (generally)

Not really. It isn't! :) 'They' just don't want you to know.

What about light?

Can you explain light (as in the absence of dark) to a blind person?

Can we try and explain, using metaphors and similes? Yes.

Can they really understand the experience of light? No.

HG Wells "The country of the blind" a great read

Why would blind need to ''understand'' colour anyway ? If it's not part of their experience -it's superfluous.
I've heard of many of the modern concepts in physics -I can live a perfectly adequate life knowing that they're there -even though I don't understand them in any true meaning of the word.

Interesting question -

From a different angle, how was Stevie Wonder able to write about beautiful women, flowers, sunny days etc, without ever having visualised them ?

what about the blind man who had a near death experience.saw himself on the operating table.
and explained all about the operation etc
prob a diff subject (sorry)
but true

A question answered a million times. You describe colours in terms of the other 4 senses.

Why would one suppose that Stevie Wonder could think of somebnody as beautiful? Are we to assume that beauty is a purely visionary attribute? Prob\bly the worst way possible to judge beauty. :-(

That should be 'couln't'.

Being seriopus on the matter. I am blind in one eye. I can say with some degree of certainty that the description of colour (which is merely reflected light) to a blind person would be irrelevant. The idea of red being a 'warm/hot colour whilst blue is cold is meaningless. Why should a green meadow be any more beautiful than a grey one?
If you think you know what colour things are you should try viewing them under a different (non-white) light. Absolute chaos for an electrician! :D

Put a hot rock in their hand and say its red and when it cools down it will be pink etc

(Courtesy of the motion picture 'Mask')