Will Davies
COLOUR AND FORM IN THE DISORDERED MIND
This project was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant.
​
Project outline:
What is it to see? This is a central question in philosophy of mind concerning the nature of visual perception. The Aristotelian view is that seeing always involves awareness of colour: we see the shapes and sizes of objects - that is, aspects of their form - by virtue of seeing their colours. This project critically re-evaluates this convention, exploring the idea that colour and form perception are not so easily distinguishable.
​
The project builds on recent work in psychology suggesting that colour vision itself is heavily involved in generating experience of form. One focus will be to examine disorders of colour consciousness, in particular cerebral achromatopsia or ‘cortical colour blindness’. Achromatopsia is extremely puzzling and suggestive, as patients somehow see forms defined solely by differences in colour, despite being unable to see these colours as such.
​
Conference:
The project involved a two-day conference at the University of Birmingham on 3-4 May 2018. Details of the event are available here:
​
​
