Color theory and scientific findings

Lecture by Dr. André Karliczek (University of Jena):

In the early modern period, epiphanies and exigesis were replaced as sources of knowledge by experiences and logic that continue to form the basis of fundamental scientific knowledge even today. Early scientific attempts to break nature down into objectively measurable units, shows a misunderstanding of humans as perceptive beings. This misunderstanding is particularly well demonstrated by the example of an historical discourse about a scientific determination of colors, because colors have always refused objective scientific categorization. This has nothing to do with Goethe’s criticism of Newton – which is often not properly understood –, it has to do with the key question of whether and if so, how humans perceive their environment. This lecture highlights this blind spot of scientific critique of reason and uses the apparently blurred conception of “color” in various historical contexts to draw attention to the fundamental consequences of this for modern science.

Event language: German