Mary the Color Scientist

Mary the Color Scientist is a thought experiment in philosophy and neuroscience. It imagines Mary as a brilliant scientist who knows everything about the science of color vision—like wavelengths and brain processes—but has never seen color herself. When she finally sees a red apple, she experiences color directly for the first time. This reveals that there are aspects of sensory experience—called qualia—that scientific knowledge alone can't fully explain. The story highlights questions about whether subjective experiences are something more than just physical facts and how consciousness and perception relate to scientific understanding.