# Objects, seeing, and object seeing **Keywords:** Seeing, Object perception, Gestalt theory, Causal theory of perception, Spatial perception, Active vision, Sense-datum theory, Philosophy of perception, Visual segregation Object-seeing is phenomenologically distinctive. While driving, I see a car pull out into my lane: I hit the brakes. But if I had seen the shadow of a cloud cross my path, I would have just kept driving. I see a ball thrown in my direction. I raise my arm to catch it. It looks very different from a ball thrown toward the camer **Abstract:** Two questions are addressed in this paper. First, what is it to see? I argue that it is veridical experience of things outside the perceiver brought about by looking. Second, what is it to see a material object? I argue that it is experience of an occupant of a spatial region that is a logical subject for other visual features, able to move to another spatial region, to change intrinsically, and to interact with other material objects. I show how this theory is different from the idea that object-seeing is merely the visual segregation of a region of the visual field. Finally, I argue that we do not object-see objects reflected in mirrors, surfaces of back-lit objects, and depictions of objects. **Authors:** [[Matthen]]