GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

l6o ETHICS
judgment ''these gooseberries are sweet", since each of
the two judgments is about something different The two
judgments are, therefore, according to the definition given
above, subjective judgments. Again, most people would
say, although not perhaps with the same degree of con-
viction, that the two judgments "the colour of the sea is
now blue" and "the colour of the sea is now green" are
subjective, since what they refer to is not some quality,
namely, blueness or greenness, which is characterizing the
sea, but the effects produced by the sea (or, to be scientifi-
cally precise, by the light waves proceeding from the place
where the sea is) upon the respective retinas of the two
persons making the judgments. These effects are complex
effects, to which the conditions of light, the respective
positions of observation, and the different characteristics
of the retinas and general visual apparatus of the persons
in question all contribute. For example, one of die two
persons might be colour-blind, so that the colour of the
sea would appear differently to him and to a person of
of normal vision. Because these complex physical and
physiological conditions are different, so too, it might be
said, are the experiences of the persons judging.
I say that the degree of conviction in this case would
probably be less than in the case of experiences originating
in the palate, for the reason that there is a general pre-
supposition to the effect that the colour of things really
belongs to diem in some sense in which their tastes, for
example, whether they are sweet or whether they are
sour, do not. Many of those who have some acquaintance
with idealist arguments 1 would, however, be inclined to
deny that things redly possess colour, and would, therefore,
class the judgments "the sea is now blue" and "the
sea is now green" as subjective in feet, if not in form.
They would, that is to say, maintain that the only statements
involving colour that we are nalfr entitled to make
are such statements as, "the sea looks blue to mt", or "the
*Sec my GtMt * PtuloMpb, Chapters I sad II, to so account of