Colour has a complex and diversified cu7ltural construct. Serious works on colors in its historical cont6ext is rare. The search for universal or archetypal truths in colour is ahistorical and devoid of transcultural truth, despite what many books based on pseudo-esoteric pop psychology would have us believe.
The silence of historians on the subject of colour is the result of three different sets of problems. The first concerns documentation and preservation. We see the colours transmitted to us as time has altered them from their original past. Moreover, we see them under different conditions from those know by past societies. The second problem concerns methodology. The historian must grapple with a host of factors; e.g., physics, chemistry, materials, iconography, ideology, and the symbolic meanings that colours convey. The proper method resembles that of palaeontologists studying cave paintings without the aid of texts.
The third set of problems is philosophical: it is wrong to project contemporary conceptions and definitions of colour onto past objects as judgments and values are not static and eternal. The danger of anachronism is very real. For example, the natural order of colours was unknown before the 17th century as was the notion of primary and secondary colours. however, research on colours aims is to explore to show how far beyond the artistic sphere this history of colour err in considering the artistic realms only, the lessons to be learned form colour lie elsewhere.

In the 3rd paragraph, the writer says that the historian writing about colour should be careful-

Created: 2 years ago | Updated: 1 year ago

After help, we can use object + infinitive (with or without to).

Can you help me (to) find my ring? (NOT Can you help me finding my ring?)
Thank you so much for helping us (to) repair the car.
Our main task is to help the company (to) become profitable.

Help can also be followed directly by an infinitive without an object.

Would you like to help pack?

If you say that you cannot/can’t help doing something (especially in British English), you mean that you can’t stop yourself, even if you don’t want to do it.

She’s a selfish woman, but somehow you can’t help liking her.
Excuse me – I couldn’t help overhearing what you said.
Sorry I broke the cup – I couldn’t help it.

Can’t help can be followed by but + infinitive (without to), with the same meaning as can’t help verb + ing. This is common in American English.

I can’t help but wonder what I should do next.

 

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