 Indirect perception interpretations have figured prominently in the history of Descartes scholarship. A number of recent commentators, however, have challenged this traditional view. For example, John Carriero’s recent book on Descartes defends a direct perception interpretation: “I don’t read Descartes as holding that I am (immediately) aware only of my sensory ideas and only subsequently (and perhaps indirectly) aware of bodies or their qualities” (2009, 25). Thus on Carriero’s reading, Descartes’ broader argument rebutting our doubts about the external world is not to be understood as an effort to get on the other side (as it were) of our ideas: