The nature of color in classical Greece. From perception to concept

Abstract

Color awakens the interest of philosophy very soon, although the theoretical positions adopted about its nature differ. The physiological study of aísthesis provides these theories with a common denominator, discovering through it new ways of categorizing experience beyond the artistic one. This process reaches its peak when color is granted a certain empirical primacy, for helping to devise a way of accessing knowledge and a systematization of natural phenomena themselves. The key to understanding theories of color in Classical Greece lies in the priority that ancients gave to the sense of sight (along with the sense of hearing) as a superior organ, capable of giving an ostensive testimony of things.