PHIL 80.22 Secondary Qualities

Secondary qualities – colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches – raise important problems in the philosophy of mind, epistemology and metaphysics. For many reasons, they seem less objective, and more tied to experience, than the traditionally primary qualities like shapes and masses do. Would colors exist in a world without color perceivers? Would sounds exist without hearers? How do the problems with understanding color relate to those for taste, touch and smell? How are secondary qualities related to primary qualities? This course will consider both historical and contemporary attempts to grapple with the primary/secondary quality distinction.

Prerequisite

Requires the permission of the instructor.

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:TMV

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