1. the perceived object as distinct from the perceiver. The separation of observer and observed is criticized as artificial in some phenomenological philosophies (see phenomenology). In Buddhism and Vedanta philosophy, there is a related notion that the distinction between the perceived object and the perceiving self is illusory.

2. anything of which the mind is conscious, including perceptions, mental images, emotions, and so forth, as well as the observing ego, or “I,” of subjective experience. Compare subject of consciousness.