The correspondence between reflection properties and color experience makes sense given current
theories of how the brain processes color information, from stimulation of cells in the retina that code
for specific wavelengths of light to interpretations generated in the visual cortex. I like the conclusion
that colors are real properties of objects, and it does seem to fit with the best available understanding
of how the brain interacts with objects. But realism about objects could be true even if realism about
colors is not, as long as we have good reason to believe that objects and at least some of their
properties exist independently of mental representations of them.
I have tried to show in this section that the best explanation of the convergence of experiences from
the multiple senses of many people and instruments is that there really are physical objects that cause
these experiences. Moreover, the observable properties of these objects are much as we perceive
them to be. Of course, they have other nonobservable properties, such as their atomic structure, that
we can learn about only from scientific theorizing.
In sum, attention to how the brain functions in perception supports constructive realism over
empiricism and idealism. The constructive nature of perception with both top-down and bottom-up
processing shows the implausibility of a narrow empiricism that ties knowledge too closely to
sensory input. On the other hand, the robustness of sensory inputs of different kinds counts by
inference to the best explanation against the idealist view that the existence of objects is mind
dependent. Our perceptual knowledge is both constructed and about real things. Such constructive
realism is also the best approach to theoretical knowledge that uses concepts and hypotheses to go
well beyond perception.