mirrors reality. Upon their bombardment by objects of experience, the sensory organs would imprint this data on the mind, giving the mind a perception of objects as they are in themselves. During Hume’s time, however, philosophers recognized that perception could be partially distorted by the sensory organs, leading to a sort of tempered realism. To illustrate, looking at a pencil partially submerged in a glass of water yields perception that the pencil is bent, while looking at the pencil out of