SCHOPENHAUER ON VISION AND THE COLORS

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) published his book, On Vision and the Colors in 1816. He started from Aristotle's linear color system and Go ethe's three pairs of contrast colors. His work preceded Hering's theo ry of opponent colors but his path to insight was blocked by his anti- Newtonianism and his neo-Hellenistic attitude toward science. Because of his theory of the subjectivity of colors he was a forerunner of the psycho-physiological variant of neo-Kantianism.