On Vision and Colours

On Vision and Colors (originally translated as On Vision and Colours; German: Ueber das Sehn und die Farben) is a treatise[1] by Arthur Schopenhauer that was published in May 1816 when the author was 28 years old. Schopenhauer had extensive discussions with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about the poet's Theory of Colours of 1810, in the months around the turn of the years 1813 and 1814, and initially shared Goethe's views.[2] Their growing theoretical disagreements and Schopenhauer's criticisms made Goethe distance himself from his young collaborator.[3] Although Schopenhauer considered his own theory superior, he would still continue to praise Goethe's work as an important introduction to his own.[4]

Schopenhauer tried to demonstrate physiologically that color is "specially modified activity of the retina."[5] The initial basis for Schopenhauer's color theory comes from Goethe's chapter on physiological colors, which discusses three principal pairs of contrasting colors: red/green, orange/blue, and yellow/violet. This is in contrast to the customary emphasis on Newton's seven colors of the Newtonian spectrum. In accordance with Aristotle, Schopenhauer considered that colors arise by the mixture of shadowy, cloudy darkness with light. With white and black at each extreme of the scale, colors are arranged in a series according to the mathematical ratio between the proportions of light and darkness. Schopenhauer agreed with Goethe's claim that the eye tends toward a sum total that consists of a color plus its spectrum or afterimage. Schopenhauer arranged the colors so that the sum of any color and its complementary afterimage always equals unity. The complete activity of the retina produces white. When the activity of the retina is divided, the part of the retinal activity that is inactive and not stimulated into color can be seen as the ghostly complementary afterimage, which he and Goethe call a (physiological) spectrum.

  1. ^ Karl Robert Mandelkow, Bodo Morawe: Goethes Briefe (Goethe's Letters). 1. edition. Vol. 3: Briefe der Jahre 1805-1821 (Letters of the years 1805-1821). Christian Wegner publishers, Hamburg 1965, p. 639. "Entsprechend hat Goethe dann auch seiner Abhandlung 'Über das Sehn und die Farben' nur bedingt zugestimmt." ("Accordingly, Goethe then also only conditionally agreed to his treatise 'On Vision and Colors'.")
  2. ^ Karl Robert Mandelkow, Bodo Morawe: Goethes Briefe (Goethe's Letters). 1. edition. Vol. 3: Briefe der Jahre 1805-1821 (Letters of the years 1805-1821). Christian Wegner publishers, Hamburg 1965, p. 639. "Vom November 1813 bis zum Mai 1814 sind sie in Weimar sehr häufig zusammengewesen. (...) In den Mittelpunkt der Diskussionen rückte schließlich die Goethesche Farbenlehre. Schopenhauer teilte prinzipiell die Ansichten des Dichters, wich jedoch in gewissen Einzelheiten von ihnen ab." ("From November 1813 till May 1814, they were together very often in Weimar. [...] Goethe's Theory of Colours finally became the central subject of the discussions. Schopenhauer basically shared the views of the poet, but deviated from them in certain details.")
  3. ^ Cartwright, David E. (2010). Schopenhauer: a Biography. Cambridge University Press. pp. 247–265.
  4. ^ Cartwright, David E. (2010). Schopenhauer: a Biography. Cambridge University Press. pp. 252 and 265.
  5. ^ On Vision and Colors, § 1