Perception And Reality

There is a sense in which everyone who even thinks there is a distinction between perceptions and reality beyond those perceptions--even if the perceptions aligned with the latter perfectly, it would still by necessity be true that perceptions are not the thing being perceived, unless they are introspective perceptions--recognizes that perceptions must already be part of reality in order to even be experienced.  However, in a deeper sense, it might be rare for someone to focus on the fact that perceptions are part of reality, just as a part of someone's consciousness and its subjective experiences, which of course must exist in order to be perceived at all, whether or not the perceptions are disconnected from actual external objects or events.  Non-rationalists might even overlook this fact entirely or thoroughly misunderstand it.

Memories of past events, sensory perceptions of visual or auditory stimuli, and dreams are all examples of perception-based experiences that either have no connection with the truth of external events or objects (like dreams, even if many things in dreams are inspired by or borrowed from waking sensory perceptions) or that cannot be proven to correspond to anything beyond one's mind no matter how strongly it seems otherwise (memories and most sensory experiences).  The epistemological disconnect between most kinds of perception and things beyond those perceptions, however, would not make the perceptions themselves illusions, as they must exist within one's mind in order to be perceived to begin with.  Since one's own consciousness is still a part of objective reality despite the fact that it allows for subjective experience, all the contents of consciousness, even if its perceptions of a great many things could be illusory, are part of reality.

These perceptions are just a part of the reality of conscious experience as a being that is incapable of knowing many things.  Of course, the necessary truths of reason still dictate even things that cannot be proven, such as whether an object one visually perceives is actually there or not, but the truth of logical axioms, one's own existence, and other facts that logically follow from axioms or one's conscious experience can still be known.  Even for an omniscient being, the truth of logical axioms and the existence of its own consciousness would still be the only self-evident things, as literally any other knowledge, even of reason and its own mind, would hinge on this prior knowledge, with even knowledge of its consciousness hinging metaphysically and epistemologically on reason at the absolute core.

Additionally, even an omniscient bring would still have perceptions, but they would simply know all truths about how they do or do not match up with scientific laws, historical events, or moral obligations!  Logical truths would be relied on even by the omniscient because nothing else is possible.  Perception is but one part of reality, one that might or might not be aligned with truths beyond it, but even subjective perceptions can only exist because they are logically possible and can only be known because of reason.  The sole way to absolute certainty is to not make assumptions and to recognize the inherent truth of logical axioms, the unchanging starting point of all necessity and possibility.  Logic quite literally dictates, confines, and reveals reality.