# PERCEPTION **Opening (not a real abstract):** Different views about perception are commonly distinguished by the claims they make about the direct or immediate objects of perception. Direct realists affirm that we directly or immediately perceive physical objects and that these objects are mindindependent. Indirect realists accept that there are such mind-independent objects and that we refer to them and have knowledge of them, but suppose us only to have indirect or mediated contact with them. Phenomenalists have commonly insisted that the objects of sense must be immediately or directly apprehended, and consequently have questioned whether there are mind-independent objects for us to think about in the first place. What, though, is it to claim that sensory awareness of some item is indirect rather direct? And what is the significance of the divide? **Authors:** [[Martin]]