# the predictive mind chapters 1 and 2 **Opening (not a real abstract):** Perception as causal inference Our senses are bombarded with input from things in the world. On the basis of that input, we perceive what is out there. The problem that will concern us is how the brain accomplishes this feat of perception. This chapter pursues the idea that the brain must use inference to perceive—the brain is an inference mechanism. The first aim is to show why we should agree with this and what the key ingredients of such perceptual inference are. The second aim is to show how inference could underpin the phenomenology of perception. A very basic and useful formulation of the problem of perception is in terms of cause and effect. States of affairs in the world have effects on the brain— objects and processes in the world are the causes of the sensory input. The problem of perception is the problem of using the effects—that is, the sensory **Authors:** [[Hohwy]]