Are Black and White Colors?

That is at least one point on which Newtonians and followers of Huygens and Young agree about.

Black and White are not colors, properly speaking.

White is the result of all primary colors, while Black is that of the secondary ones.

But most important of all, we have an absolute dichotomy in the optical world:

White represents All colors, while Black represents None.

Black is defined as the absence of light, it is what remains when all other colors have been absorbed.

This view is completely arbitrary and relies on no empirical evidence whatsoever. You have to believe in in it to... believe it.

Light is defined as arbitrarily white, while we can see that there is quite a difference between a white glass, and a transparent glass.

If Newton had opted for this more reasonable solution, light theories, physical science and cosmology would have looked completely different.

A white ambient light would create an opaque atmosphere where everything would turn white, just like in the Matrix.

If we accepted the idea that white is a color, different from the transparent state of light when all colors are present, and that therefore also black is a color, the result of a certain mix, then we would revolutionize physics.

Funny, how much depends on a simple definition.