# Introduction to the philosophy of colour **Opening (not a real abstract):** Why has the examination of many different aspects of colour been a prominent feature in philosophy, to such an extent that the topic is worthy of a handbook? Here are two related answers. First, colours are exceedingly familiar, seemingly simple features that become enigmatic under scrutiny, and they are difficult to capture in any familiar-sounding, unsophisticated theory. Second, through colour one can confront various problems that span the breadth of philosophy, including problems pertaining to perception, the mind-body relation, the nature of science, scepticism, vagueness, meta-ethics, and aesthetics. Let us elaborate. Colour is, unsurprisingly, central to work in vision and, for better or worse, vision often dominates philosophy of perception. In this way, colour informs our understanding of the **Authors:** [[brown and MacPherson]]