Eye Color and Viewing the World

I've been searching for this answer for quite some time, but I can never seem to find the right phrase to Google. So I figured I would ask you all. Whenever I close my eyes for a while, say five minutes, when I open them the world has a slight tinge of blue over everything. My eyes are blue in color, and almost all of my friends' are as well, so no sense asking them. I'm wondering if anyone who has green, brown, etc. eyes has a tinge representing their eye color when they do the same thing.

If this is true, this brings a whole new meaning behind the qualia concept. For those of you who don't know, qualia are (no not a group of quale, search under philosophy) an experience which is universally shared, but is individually experienced with no way of truly sharing those experiences with anyone else. A common way of explaining it is that everyone knows what the color "red" looks like. Unfortunately just because I look at a red light and call it red, does not mean that what I see is the same color you see. I have been conditioned to call it read, though what I may see as red, is really what you see as blue. For all we know, many of us are walking about calling blue yellow, and green orange. Even if someone were to take a colorblind test, the test would merely show that they were not able to see the color red, even though it might be processed in their brain as blue.

Anyway, I'm just curious as to whether the color of our eyes have anything to do with any possible overlaying shading of the color we view the world through, or at least if you close your eyes and wait a bit and open them if you see everything as a tint towards the color of your eyes. Just curious, and always looking for answers.

Thanks to any and all comments.

op be cautious. this type of thought can really send a person into an infenite series of questions...:

is my red really blue? feeling really real? language realy mine? are ppl evan real? or is this all one big dream?!?
are my dreams real life
am i just a whim of a thought of an advanced being light years away??? omg i let it begin again * shakes fist* " WHY?"

Aw, I would be happy to answer but my eyes are blue too.

For what it's worth, sometimes I notice I see colors slightly differently out of either eye. I'll look through one eye, and things will have a more reddish tint for example, then the other and they'll have less red in the tint.

No way you can tell that your "red" and my "red" are the same subjective experience though. Drives me nuts too.

Well I have green eyes, and I don't see a green tint, I see more of a red and yellow.

Haha sorry Jplaysguitar, didn't mean to send you into that horrible endless loop of questioning your very existence. Bsb thanks for at least wanting to give it a shot, fortunately I stumbled upon the whole qualia questioning of things a couple of years ago so it doesn't drive me as crazy as it used to Also, thanks calstorm for giving it a shot. I do see the red and blue like Bsb was talking about. Interesting that you see yellow instead of blue. I hope some more people try this and see if we can't get some census.

Think about it the other way, what if we all saw red as red, but the definition of colours was changed, so people call the colour red "blue" and some call it "green" (and obviously we call it "red") - Much of the problem is the language itself, what we use to define things. Scientifically, we all generally sense the same spectrum of light, unless we have specific disorders. A more interesting paradox is this:

Imagine that in your world, all the "red" objects appear "blue" and all the "blue" objects appear "red" - however, you name for what you see as "blue" is "red" and for what you see as "red" is "blue"! So - when someone tells you the sky is blue, then you agree, the sky is blue, even though it really looks red to you, your definition of the colour red is the word blue, and the colour blue the word red!

Originally posted by Acedrew89

Anyway, I'm just curious as to whether the color of our eyes have anything to do with any possible overlaying shading of the color we view the world through, or at least if you close your eyes and wait a bit and open them if you see everything as a tint towards the color of your eyes. Just curious, and always looking for answers.

Thanks to any and all comments.

I've got blue eyes too and I've never noticed a blue tint. You don't see through the iris (the colored part) you see through the pupil, the back hole in the iris, so I'm not sure how eye color would do this.

There is this:
en.wikipedia.org...

Cyanopsia is a medical term for seeing everything tinted with blue. It is also referred to as blue vision. Cyanopsia often occurs for a few days, weeks, or months after removal of a cataract from the eye. Cyanopsia also sometimes occurs as a side effect of taking sildenafil(Viagra), Cialis, or Levitra (Viagra and vision, n.d.).......
The eye's lens is normally tinted yellow. This reduces the intensity of blue light reaching the retina. When the lens is removed because of cataract, it is usually replaced by an artificial intraocular lens; these artificial lenses are clear, allowing more intense blue light than usual to fall on the retina, leading to the phenomenon.

Maybe you don't have as much yellow in yours. And like the poster above, my color sensitivity varies between the eyes as does my vision. Unless people tell you on a regular basis that your clothes don't match, you're probably seeing colors pretty much the same way as the rest of the world.

Here is a very useful page with some answers to some of the questions here link

Q: Why do my two eyes seem to perceive color differently? A: There are a a couple of reasons for this. One is that sometimes there are small physiological differences between the two eyes. This results in our color vision often being slightly different between our two eyes. Also, if you close one eye at a time to make comparisons, a second cause is adaptation. When you go into a dark place, dark adaptation helps your visual system to see better by making your eyes more sensitive to light. The opposite (light adaptation) makes your eyes less sensitive when there is plenty of light. When you close one eye, it is becoming dark adapted (more sensitive) and then when you open it back up all the colors will look brighter.

And to the op

Q: Do different people see color differently? Q: Do all human beings see colour the same way? E.g. could I see green the way another sees red etc.? A: We can't really say for sure, but we do know enough about the anatomy, physiology, and psychology of vision to be quite certain that we are seeing things the same way. However, this ultimately becomes a question of philosophy ... do you believe that the experience I have when viewing red is the same as the experience you have when viewing red??? There is no way to prove it one way or the other. That said, there are small physiological differences between people that cause slight differences in color perception. These are particularly noticeable when making critical color matches.

So it seems that the answer is. No one knows and it doesn't look like we are going to find out any time soon, the colour of your eyes doesn''t seem to have anything to do with it though as light comes through the pupil which is clear not the Iris which has a high pigment content and blocks light

My eyes being a light shade of blue definitely causes me to see the world differently. Two examples I can think of off the top of my head would be:

1. Sunshine is a pain in the ass. Even when it's a bit of glare coming through the overcast of San Francisco, I need to wear sunglasses. I told this to my optometrist and he told me blue eyes are more sensitive to sunlight.

and

2. Pepper spray. Oh boy, when they said those with blue eyes will be more effected they weren't kidding around! What I would have given to be brown eyed at the time.

My eyes are a blue green but I have a purple tint to things. My friend who has hazel eyes and I think is colour blind to the colour red sees things as more brown than red. Its all about the cones and rods in your eyes. Some people have more than others. As for eye colour and perceiving colour, that so far is not true but, who knows a colour is a label what I see as red and call red might be my blue but you still call it red. Its very philosophical who knows what colours really look like. How do you describe the colour green?

Sorry, I should have been more clear haha. I do understand that color is perceived through the rods and cones in your retina. What I meant more was if the color of your eyes some how created a tint over the cornea. Would this then, from the reflection of light, create a shade over the light your iris receives because the color of the eye is the color the outside of your iris reflects back out into the world instead of absorbing.

Also, I appreciate the comments. A lot of cool information and philosophical questions floating around. Thanks.

reply to post by jplaysguitar


"is my red really blue"

I AM SO GLAD THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS THOUGHT THIS BEFORE.

you just made my day.

i asked my wife about it she says she cant tell shes unique cuz her eyes are blue whith gorgeous golen freckle in the iris . she was fascinated by the thred thou

reply to post by snusfanatic


Everybody's thought this before.. it's probably the first ever philosophical thought anyone has. Along with "Am I asleep?" and "How can I prove anyone else exists?".

I see colors differently with one eye and the other. I discovered this on some lazy Saturday morning when the room was filled with light and If I closed one eye I would see one version and them the other eye another version. I do not have depth perception so I have always be very interested in how my 2 eyes see very independently.

The colors were the same colors by definition...just a different shade, as if you had changed the tone on a TV or computer monitor.

Some times when I am startled out of a deep sleep for what ever reason everything is tinted red? This will last until I close my eyes again.

Also as a kid I used to wonder about my red being your blue.. ect.. But I came to the conclusion if this were true it would only be by slightly different shades because if we all know that black is dark and white is bright then my black being dark cannot be your white because it would still be "dark". Unless bright and dark can be different to people. But I have never heard of someone complaining that a flashlight cast dark instead of light????