 When speaking of ideas as representing things to the mind, Descartes will refer to an idea’s objective reality. The objective reality of a thing is the kind of reality a thing possesses in virtue of its being a representation of something (ibid.). Given that the idea of the Sun and the idea of Pegasus represent things to the mind (they represent or exhibit the Sun and Pegasus respectively), each possesses objective reality. Descartes says that ideas possess objective reality by their very nature. Equally importantly, ideas are the only items in his ontology that possess both formal and objective reality. (AT VII 42; CSM II 29)