(July 9, 2015 at 8:49 am)Nestor Wrote: This question is sort of akin to "Does a falling tree make a noise when nobody is around to hear it?" but I'm mostly interested in the phenomenon of color. We probably are all aware that what we see as red sunsets, blue skies, green trees, etc. are wavelengths of light reflecting off the particular properties of objects, transmitted through our retina and into the brain, from which differentiated sensations that we identify as colors are perceived. So my question is this: Imagine the world as it existed prior to conscious life. What did it look like? Is there any color in that world? Is it a meaningless question? What does that entail for other properties of objects "out there" that we only know through perception?
Hmmm ... what did it look like before there was any thing around to do the looking. I imagine -before there was anyone around to do the imagining- that all the essential properties of things would be the same. Stuff will be what it is but won't enter into a looking-like relationship until the stuff itself acquires the properties necessary to do the looking.
