Perhaps there is a confusion here between being unable to see anything exceppt
black, white, and shades of grey and what, for lack of a better term, let me
call partial color blindness.  Since I have the second, I can tell you that the
experiences reported are perfectly possible.  One of the major colorblindness
tests depends on just this characteristic of some colorblindnesses, namely that
what to some are seen as distinct colors are seen by those color blind to one
of the colors as if it were the other.  Your comment seems to assume that the
colorblind person is the point of reference for both difference and sameness,
which would be absurd.  But I can know from what others tell me that some color
looks one way to them.  Then I can point to another color which is the way in
which the first color appears to me.  Thus it takes two of us to make the
comparrison: the person without colorblindness in that area who sees two
distinct colors, and myself who sees only one.  The other can even tell me the
names of the two colors, and then I can tell you that I see color A as if it
were color B.           But you are right; alone, neither of us could have made
the reported claim.

Kendall D'Andrade

On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Wathen, Adam wrote:

> How could someone who is color-blind know that what looks like green grass
> to him is our equivalent of brownish-orange.  He wouldn't have any reference
> point to make that equation.
> Skeptically,  > Adam Wathen   > Assistant Professor   > Montana State University--Bozeman
> [log in to unmask]

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