Colour, colour experience, and the mind-body problem

Experiences of colour are relevant to the mind-body problem, because they are mental states or events. The solution to the mind-body problem turns, in part, on the ontological status of, for instance, experiences of red. Physicalism figures prominently in contemporary discussions of the mind-body problem, either as a doctrine to be defended, or rejected, or as the lesser or greater partner in a comparison with some or other alternative view. Colour experiences are subjective experiences, and subjective experiences pose a formidable problem for physicalism. Indeed, of all mental phenomena, they may pose the most formidable problem for that doctrine. Although the ontological status of metal is relevant to physicalism, it is arguably irrelevant to the mind-body problem. The fact that the readers have experiences of colour is itself no reason at all to think that the colours are mental properties.