Comment by goatlover
5 months ago
Wonder how this applies to animals since their color discrimination would not be impacted by language. Did humans evolve linguistic abilities that alter sensory processing? Seems odd that animals would be able to discriminate colors their eyes can see just fine, but humans would need words to do so.
Good question. I'm no expert, but I guess that the key issue is one of categorization. Without language, it is impossible to effectively categorize our perceptual domain.
It is also true that among mammals, chromatic vision is pretty much restricted to primates. The ability to perceive difference of light is a must if you don't want to become someone else's food. In contrast, chromatic vision is an 'extra' that in many ways serves as a (literally) florid extension to our lives. To me it is no surprise that range of emotion and range of hue are so often associated with each other. Interestingly enough, they are similarly mapped: as a set of differences, rather than as a degree of intensity.