What do the patriarchy, religion, and magenta all have in common? They all exist, but are only visible to the human mind. The most important part of this statement is the word “exist.”. The concept of existence has been debated for centuries, to the point where quandaries with clear-cut answers become overly questioned. However, the meaning of existence is much simpler than many may think, particularly when it comes to something so straightforward as magenta.
Like my fellow staff writer, Jacqueline Shires, ´26, stated, there is no specific wavelength that correlates with the color magenta. Humans process the mixture of red and violet as what we see as magenta. This is similar to the way white and pink are processed. Both come from a mixture of wavelengths rather than resulting from a single one, yet they both still exist according to Encyclopedia Britannica. When multiple wavelengths are combined, brains often perceive them as one very real color. In this way, the color magenta can be compared to a cake. The ingredients are like wavelengths, combining to create a beautiful magenta cake. Although this cake is only the result of other ingredients, it still exists.
This brings us to the question: what does it mean to exist? The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word exist as “to be, or be real.” This is a bit unclear, as the word real is quite similar to the word exist. To make this easier to understand, we can take a look at the definition of real, which is “existing in fact and not imaginary,” and the definition of imagination: “The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.” According to the combination of these definitions, in order to exist, something must have the ability to be perceived with at least one sense. Of course, magenta can be sensed, in this case, seen, making it non-imaginative and therefore, an existing phenomenon.
The perception of color greatly varies from species to species. Dogs only see blue and yellow, while most insects can see yellow, green, blue, and ultraviolet, but not red, according to North Carolina State University. Just because a dog sees blue while an insect may see green, the dog´s version of blue isn´t any less real, as existence is rooted in its ability to be perceived. Likewise, if a person sees magenta, although many species see something else, magenta does, in fact, exist.
There are many phenomena only visible to humans. As mentioned earlier, religion is only perceived by people. The same thing goes for the patriarchy, which was, in addition, created not by a physical substance but by humans. Both of these things exist, whether or not other species recognize them. When it comes to existence, the question isn´t how something originated; it´s whether or not it possesses the ability to be perceived.
