# THERAPEUTIC REFLECTIONS ON OUR BIPOLAR HISTORY OF PERCEPTION **Opening (not a real abstract):** The long history of theorizing about perception—a history as long as the history of philosophy itself—divides into two quite distinct and irreconcilable camps, one that takes sensory experience to show us external reality just as it is, and one that takes such experience to reveal our own mind. Why we swing back and forth between these two extremes is something I hope to explain. Perhaps I might be forgiven for declining to take a position on which side in this oldest of philosophical debates has things right—but I mean to ask for no such forgiveness because in fact I am going to tell you which side is right: Neither one. Each position is wholly pathological. The first part of this essay diagnoses our long bipolar history and draws several lessons from it. The second part suggests that many current theories might still benefit from this diagnosis, inasmuch as they **Authors:** [[ROBERT PASNAU]]