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Philosophy

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  • The two examples you gave (The Dress, colorblindness) are the result of measurable physiological differences between individuals. In the case of The Dress the difference occurs in the brain, and in the case of colorblindness it's (usually) in the eyes. Different people having different qualia as a result of physical differences is philosophically uninteresting and has nothing to do with the problem at hand. In short: Yes, if I wear red glasses and you wear blue glasses, we will see the same painting differently. Commented Mar 13, 2016 at 23:05
  • @Era The purpose of the dress argument was specifically to counter the quesitonable argument, "On the other hand, people usually only argue about color shades, various degrees of redness, but not about redness as such." Such arguments certainly need to be controlled before a deeper discussion of qualia can occur. There are ways to avoid needing to counter such incorrect claims first, but they are hard to do in a Q&A format like stack exchange, so the easiest way to go is to challenge misconceptions first. Commented Mar 13, 2016 at 23:26