A comparative reading on the manifestation of the color element in the views of ancient Iranian and Greek philosophers

Introduction

From an expert's perspective, color and form are human visual perception's most significant visual elements. Nowadays, a significant number of theories have been proposed in the field of color recognition, and the advancement of science and research experiences have paved new ways for feeling and perceiving it. Ethan, the author of "The Art of Color", claims: A physicist studies the energy and particles in light, the composition of colored lights, the spectrum of elements, and the frequency and wavelength of colored rays. The molecular structure of pigments is of high importance for a chemist. A biologist examines the distinct impacts of light and color on the visual system and how the eye adjusts to them. The psychologist considers the effect of color on the psyche and mental understanding of colors. Artists are interested in color aesthetics and weigh on the representation of it in artworks. Thus, all these sciences were historically regarded as a subset of philosophy. Therefore, the most comprehensive theories on color were considered a tangible quality issued by philosophers. However, a lack of familiarity with these theories has recently made colorology a new science, concomitant with Newton's experiences and experiments. It is assumed that its origin goes back to the era of specialization of sciences. Historically, philosophers in Iran and Greece have paid attention to the issue of color regarding light, and unknown secrets are written with the source of conceptual or visual sensory perceptions. 
Therefore, these writings continued with the emergence of Islam, influenced by the Arabic translation movement in the Abbasid era, and were closely related together; they framed the mind of Muslim philosophers by creating developments and new perspectives and the foundation of the philosophical school of illuminationism by Sheikh Shahabuddin Suhravardi at the height of this interaction in the following centuries. 

Methodology

Similarly, this study tries to analyze its philosophical data about colors comparatively and to extract the similarities and differences in their opinions about the perception of this visual element based on light. It is assumed that: Therefore, in all of their comments, the philosophers of Iran and ancient Greece explained the same color by taking the model of light; the perception of this element, a combination of conceptual and visual perception has been manifested. Zoroaster and Mani, in Iran, were regarded as the philosophers and wise people to accept or reject these hypotheses. While describing their religious-knowledge system, they have explicitly or implicitly referred to color manifestations in a written or visual manner. The thoughts of Empedocles, Democritus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were studied in Greece.

Discussion

Analyzes of the common and distinct aspects of various visions of philosophers suggest that color in their opinions is not only a mixture of the two conceptual and visual senses; each has only stressed one of these two. Thus:
Colors emerge in the form of lights with a metaphysical and spiritual nature either in the stand of the soul and its darkness or in the stand of God's manifestation and approaching to Him, and can carry a meaningful quality for humans and finally provide the basis for symbolic spiritual interpretations. Iranian philosophers paid extensive attention to seeing this visual element in the conceptual sense. They perceptually and intuitively substantiated the perception of color and defined ranges of pure and raw colors between white and black. In this range, they valued content and the concept of colors.
Likewise, Greek philosophers heavily emphasized seeing this visual element in their vision. Colors that regularly emerge in the shape of various lights with physical nature can potentially convey the tangible quality of the object and the form in isolation as well as in combination with each other for humans and finally form the basis for the sensory interpretations. Therefore, perception of color and its context leads to the emotional and tangible substantiation of its existence by the power of vision, the three components of the object's essence, the way the light shines, and the condition of the eye state. 
Everybody has considered the existence and the human reaction to their perception certain and expressed comprehensive comments focusing on how to view this visual element. However, should we profoundly consider the thoughts and ideas of these philosophers as the final point, we will find out the correspondence of their opinions with colors and their conversion and combination, which God has created in nature. Ironically, this has been the turning point in their effect on each other and building common interests. It means they spiritually contemplate God's signs, whether in a perceptible or over-perceptible world. The contrast between white and black and various colors between these two are shared among Iranian and Greek philosophers; the red color is also formed by the combination of white and black, whether physically or metaphysically. Greek philosophers emphasized the tangible quality of colors and immediate and direct feeling. On the other hand, Iranian philosophers heeded attention to the mental perception of colors by their mythical and symbolic functions. The functions are based on a stable mental process and are considered the reason for viewing various colors without a sensory organ. According to the belief of Iranian philosophers, the nature of light and color are not separated, and their difference and how color is affected by light is not considered in viewing various colors. The Greek philosophers believed that the difference in how light is affected by colors caused the eyes to see the colors differently. Greek philosophers have expressed some conditions in their ideas to realize the color vision and the perception of it beyond the vision power.  However, Iranian philosophers considered human efforts the condition for the light seeker in symbolic transit from darkness and the evils to brightness and the goods in the evolution of the soul. In the scope of Greek philosophy, color is a material element and the product of the dissociation of light to reveal several defined objects from which the primary colors are taken, and from the combination of them, the secondary colors are produced.  However, light is synonymous with the existence and manifestation of God’s infinite nature from which various colors are produced in Iranian philosophy. It is the cause of the realization and emergence of colors in the realm of human existence. From Iranian philosophers’ point of view, white and black colors are created based on how much they benefit from the source of God’s grace; thus, they have semantic and symbolic value.  Nevertheless, these colors are created based on the extent to which the physical radius of light increases or decreases.

Conclusion

Unlike Socrates, who briefly and concisely proposed his thoughts on how he sees colors, other philosophers in these two countries have pointed out the details of the emergence of colors based on light and its different types. The difference is that Iranian philosophers studied the classification of colors and the Greek philosophers examined their combinations. The former have always considered colors in the longitudinal hierarchy and the latter in the transverse hierarchy. Although the Greek philosophers' opinions are distinct from each other, i.e., Empedocles and Democritus studied colors based on the movement of light particles, Socrates reviewed them based on eye frictions with light rays, Plato considered the outcome of the exit of the radius, and Aristotle examined them based on their impressions. Thus, they have proven all these topics based on the visual sense. On the other hand, Zoroaster and Mani saw colors from another angle of view and considered the intuition of the human soul in gaining the grace of Ahura as evidence for different colors. 
The Greek philosophers believed that the difference in how light is affected by colors caused the eyes to see the colors differently. They believe that the nature of light and color are not separated, and the difference and how color is affected by light are not considered in viewing various colors. Therefore, they explained the perception of this visual element regardless of the arguments of physical logic about the perception of colors based on conceptual sense.