Tu aimes le violet ?

I've read through the other answers here, but still think this question is ambiguous.  Without context we could be talking about purple/violet in general (so c'est) or a specific shade of purple.

For example, if we're picking out paint colors and I said "Do you like the purple?" I'm talking about a specific thing, would that not be Il est...?

Edit: And it just came up again, this time as "Tu aimes l'école?"  That again is lacking context, are we walking about a specific school or school in general?