The presence of environmental objects to perceptual consciousness: a difference it makes for psychological...

Of the states that constitute William James's stream of consciousness, many are or include perceptual mental acts. These states present to consciousness one or more of their environmental objects themselves, as distinct from a mere internal representation of the latter. That is, a feature of the contents of such states is that their objects have phenomenological perceptual presence. Furthermore, this presence plays a role in mental functioning, beyond simply its being instantiated by many states of consciousness: We often base what we do next with respect to an environmental object that we perceive on its phenomenological perceptual presence to us.