How Do We Know?

I have always wondered if we all saw colors the same.... Ok, follow me for a second. What if when I see the color red, it looks like the color green that you see? How do we know that our brains interpret the colors the same as everyone else. What looks green to me may be red, but I call it red because that's how it was always labeled when I saw it. But if I saw the same red through someone elses eyes/mind it may look completely different than how my eyes/mind sees it.... There is no way of proving what I see matches what you see, we can only prove that what we both see is labeled the same as both of us.
 
dt3 said:
I wonder what percentage of the world believes in god or a higher being? And how many claim to have been affected somehow by god. I bet it's a large percentage. So you're saying you believe in god?
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There's a difference. If it has to do with the human body, you can use other bodies to prove something that is a physical phenomena with actual data that has been tested on other bodies. With religion and beliefs, you can't really prove to someone just by saying "Yeah, god exists so accept it because everyone else does" without any real evidence. Ideas cant really be SHOWN or proved to an individual just by word of mouth, all they can do is make the individual think about them and accept them based off of the evidence presented. Its all situational.
 
RecklessTim said:
I have always wondered if we all saw colors the same.... Ok, follow me for a second. What if when I see the color red, it looks like the color green that you see? How do we know that our brains interpret the colors the same as everyone else. What looks green to me may be red, but I call it red because that's how it was always labeled when I saw it. But if I saw the same red through someone elses eyes/mind it may look completely different than how my eyes/mind sees it.... There is no way of proving what I see matches what you see, we can only prove that what we both see is labeled the same as both of us.
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yeah, but at least once you label something red and talk about this red with the rest of society and you can agree what you're talking about. i think that makes things more real, other people agreeing with you.
 
All Else Failed said:
What about sound waves and sonic phenomena? The body can feel those physically.
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It's hard to feel the sound waves of a person talking unless you touch their throat. And even then, it's just a vibration with no real meaning. It's kinda like the pain thing. Sure, you can show them all the brain scans you want but that has no meaning. You can hold something up to someone all you want and tell them what it is but until they can experience it, they will never truly know and understand what it is.
 
RecklessTim said:
I have always wondered if we all saw colors the same.... Ok, follow me for a second. What if when I see the color red, it looks like the color green that you see? How do we know that our brains interpret the colors the same as everyone else. What looks green to me may be red, but I call it red because that's how it was always labeled when I saw it. But if I saw the same red through someone elses eyes/mind it may look completely different than how my eyes/mind sees it.... There is no way of proving what I see matches what you see, we can only prove that what we both see is labeled the same as both of us.
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My sister and I talked about this before. Someone pointed to something and said "that's red." You didn't know that before hand. But that person could have pointed to what society said is blue, called it red, and you wouldn't know the difference. Our whole language is given meaning by society. A chair is only a chair because we say it is.
 
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