Abstract

It is often said that we have an immediate knowledge of ourselves on a basic level that is captured in statements like ‘I am writing this paper’ or that ‘I am talking to you right now’. This certainty is largely attributed to an ‘inner’ faculty of perception that contrasts with the external sensory apparatus that receives inputs from the external world of objects. This paper discusses some of the significant parameters of this framework that separates the inner and the outer world on the epistemological basis of access and certainty. The paradigmatic cogito argument is considered and the grounds that establish the self and the world are discussed to understand the nature of internal and external perception and its implication for the mind –body problem. Perception is our direct mode of access to the world around us, but redirecting the paradigm of perception to understand the mind reinforces the false analogy of treating minds as inner objects and has played a significant part in the continuation of the mind-body problem.