Color identity theory

Now for an historical aside. When David Armstrong presented the identity theory of color, the theory that red, for example, is identical with some physical property — reflectance as it might be — he distinguished color, the property, from the concept of color. He allowed that the concept red was not that of reflectarKe R. He said much the same for mental properties. Here is a key passage ... 

I think this leads to, or anyway invites, a misunderstanding of the structure of physicalist identity theories of color and of mind. It su ests that they embody a dualism of property and concept the color properties are, on the theory, reflectance properties (if that is the answer color science delivers at the end of the day), whereas the concept of color is quite different from the concept of reflectance likewise, mental properties are brain properties, but the concept of a mental state is not that of a brain property (whether or not Armstrong is right that it is the concept of a state apt for the production of certain behaviors). 

Mapping the Margins Intersectionality, Identity PoUtics, and Violence Against Women of Color. In Kimberle Crenshaw et al. (eds.). Critical Race Theory The Key Writings That Formed the Movement. New York New Press. 

The law of partial pressures, Eq. (3.3.7), was observed in 1801 by John Dalton (1766-1844), a British chemist and physicist. He worked on the constitution of mixed gases, on the vapor pressure of liquids, and on the thermal expansion of gases. His most important investigations are those concerned with the atomic theory in chemistry, which can be summarized as follows (i) Elements are made of tiny particles called atoms, (ii) Atoms of a given element are identical and different from those of other elements, (iii) Atoms of one element can combine with atoms of other elements to form compounds that always have the same relative numbers of types of atoms, (iv) Atoms cannot be created, divided into smaller particles, or destroyed in the chemical process. These statements of Dalton s theory are to a large extent still true. Today we know that his statement Atoms cannot be created, divided. .. is inconsistent with nuclear fusion and fission, and his statement All atoms of a given element are identical is also not precisely true, as there are different isotopes of an element. Dalton also did research into color blindness, which is sometimes called Daltonism in his honor. 

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