On Vision and Colors tried to demonstrate physiologically that color is "specially modified activity of the retina." The initial basis for Schopenhauer's color theory comes from Goethe's chapter on physiological colors, which discusses three principal pairs of contrasting colors: red/green, orange/blue, and yellow/violet. This is in contrast to the customary emphasis on Newton's seven colors of the Newtonian spectrum. In accordance with Aristotle, Schopenhauer considered that colors arise by the mixture of shadowy, cloudy darkness with light. With white and black at each extreme of the scale, colors are arranged in a series according to the mathematical ratio between the proportions of light and
White light, incandescent lamps of various Color temperatures). This has led to the notion that white light can be defined as a mixture of "all colors" or "all visible wavelengths". This widespread idea is a misconception, and might originally stem from the fact that Newton discovered that "sunlight" is composed of light with wavelengths across the visible spectrum. Concluding that "since "all colors" produce white light then white must be made up of "all colors"" is a common logical error called affirming the consequent, which might be the cause of the misunderstanding. A range of spectral distributions of light sources can