Exploring the Mind: Seven Studies

Oliver Sacks' Final Word on the Qualia of Color

"On the ultimate question–the question of qualia: why a particular sensation may be perceived as red–the case of Jonathon I. may not be able to help us at all. After describing 'the celebrated phenomenon of colours,' Newton drew back from all speculation about sensation and would hazard no hypothesis as to 'by what modes or action light produceth in our minds the phantasms of colours.' Three centuries later, we still have no hypothesis, and perhaps such questions can never be answered at all."