Perception Does Not Require External Objects

It has been suggested to me that consciousness must perceive something through the senses in order to exist.  Another way of saying this is that if there is no object or external world to perceive, there is no mind in existence.  But even a cursory rationalistic examination exposes the errors within this position.  What is asinine is only accepted as true by those with intellectual incompetencies.

Consciousness is necessary for one to perceive, for instance, a tree, a stone, a book, or one's own body.  Since consciousness is itself both the ability to perceive and the mind that does the perceiving, this much is easily apparent.  But the inverse is not true: neither external objects nor the senses are necessary for perceptions to exist.  Anyone who recognizes the nature of introspection knows that a mind can gaze within itself.  Remove material objects, and this truth does not change.

It is possible for a consciousness to exist
 independent of the material world.

A mind does not require external objects for its own existence to persist.  All a consciousness needs to perceive is to simply exist on its own, given that it grasps the external laws of logic, which enable intelligible experiences and exist independent of all minds (even that of God).  That is why I did not say that a consciousness does not need anything at all other than itself to perceive, only that it does not need external objects--which refers merely to objects made of physical substance and not to the laws of logic.  However, nothing outside of consciousness beyond logic is required for perception.

Without the necessary metaphysical existence of logic and a grasp of logic via the intellect, a mind cannot have experiences that are understandable in even the slightest degree, since it could not even comprehend that there is such a thing as reality (in other words, that truth exists), that a thing is what it is, that contradictions are impossible, or that its own consciousness exists.  All perception is metaphysically possible only because of reason--not the other way around.

Even if the world of matter vanished entirely, a consciousness could continue to exist, since such a thing is logically possible and no one can demonstrate that it would not continue in its existence.  And, of course, even if that consciousness disappeared as well, logic would remain in existence by necessity, since reality could not be any other way.