Why don't color blind people have a different theory of physics? [closed]

Question

I have heard from numerous sources that our senses cannot be relied upon and therefore all knowledge that we have is subjective & relative. In other words, many people claim that variance in perception implies variance in concepts that a person forms/deduces.

Yet, I know that color blind people accept the same physics as we do.

Doesn't this mean it may be possible to have concepts which are objective?

Other questions: OR perhaps if you think color blind people subscribe to the beliefs of the majority, does that mean if 50 million Frenchmen think gravity is unreal then so will it be? Or if you think that the beliefs of the majority are infallible why do you think lynching ought to be prevented?

Answer 1

Your numerous sources are wrong. Senses can be relied upon to a large extent (fortunately). Otherwise you would have been unable to write your question. Also, you can verify colors--that a flower is yellow, for example--by taking it around to other people and asking them what color the flower is. If you observe a high degree of agreement without them knowing in advance what the answer was supposed to be, then you can deduce that, although you are unable to directly perceive that quality of the object, there is some quality that others are perceiving in a consistent way.

If you read a bit about the philosophy of science, you'll perhaps begin to see how this works (especially in the case of things we can't sense, like the quantum spin of nuclei--but MRI machines work consistently, don't they?).

It has much more to do with consistency than with beliefs. If everyone thinks the long-haired stranger should be lynched, you conclude not that the long-haired stranger should be lynched, but that there is some feature of the long-haired stranger that the locals consistently find deserving of lynching.