I have no access to the underlying reality , only my perceptions . So if I accept your point , then I must mark everything I believe as a lie . No matter how much work I put in to verify my perceptions , it ' s still , according to you , a lie , a deception , something untrustworthy . How do I get anything done when I treat every belief as a lie ? If I am hungry and think food will cure this no , that ' s a belief that comes from my perception , so it is a lie . Food is no more likely to cure it than dance or song or lying in bed . If I want to take a walk down the street , I believe that it would be better for me to exit the house through my front door than to leap from the roof but that is also a lie . The result is even less useful than solipsism .