Abstract: Being opposed to regarding color as some physical property or sui generis entity, color relationalism defines color as the relation among the subject, object and perceptual circumstances, thus somehow overcoming the limitation of such color theories as physicalism and primitivism, and highlighting the unique role of the subject’s perceptual variation in cognizing and representing color properties. Color relationalism, however, seems to have confused the subject’s perceptual representation with the objective color per se and to have failed to distinguish between the metaphysical nature of color and its epistemological characteristics. So a more rational and scientific color ontology should take both its objective and subjective properties into account by opting for a theoretical approach that is dialectical, dynamic and multidimensional.

Key words: color property, relationalism, three-place relationship, perceptual variation