Colours and Shapes

The property which perceptual experiences of a given phenomenal kind enable the subject to track is not always identical with the property objects appear to have (in a phenomenally manifest manner) in the kind of experience at issue. Tracked properties and apparent properties come apart in colour perception but they are identical in the perception of three-dimensional shape. In order to defend these claims, this chapter proposes a criterion for the identity of tracked property and apparent property in a given experience. The view developed leads to an account of the traditional distinction between primary and secondary qualities. In order to capture what it is to instantiate a given secondary quality, one must specify the phenomenal kind of perceptual experience an instantiation of the property would render veridical.