an immediate consciousness of the existence of things outside us’ (1979: 97). He began his defence of this very natural idea by asking how someone might typically give a description of their current visual experience, and offered this example of such a description: ‘I see the red light of the setting sun filtering through the black and thickly clustered branches of the elms; I see the dappled deer grazing in groups on the vivid green grass. . . ’ (1979: 97). In other words, in describing experience, we tend to describe the objects of experience — the things which we experience — and the ways they are when we are experiencing them. Some go further. According to Heidegger,