Consider a book on your desk. You see the book and recognize it. Put it away in a cupboard, and you can still understand what a book is.
The book on the desk is the external object.
Your understanding of the book is its mental representation.
This distinction prevents us from equating knowledge with whatever we are seeing at the moment.
Opening interactive controls...
Mental understanding and an external object
Knowledge, Conception and Judgment
Consider a book on your desk. You see the book and recognize it. Put it away in a cupboard, and you can still understand what a book is.
The book on the desk is the external object.
Your understanding of the book is its mental representation.
This distinction prevents us from equating knowledge with whatever we are seeing at the moment.