These contentions conflict with much of what we know about perception and the practice of science. Our perceptual apparatus has the capacity to observe objects approximately as they are. As a result, scientists cannot get just the experimental results that they want, but have to work with what their observations and instruments tell them. Hypothesizing about mechanisms produces the progressive deepening as well as broadening of scientific theories. The technological applications of scientific theories make no sense without some connection between theories and the world. My cognitive and neural explanations of perception and scientific thinking are highly compatible with there being many social factors in the development of everyday and scientific knowledge, but rule out the imperialistic claim that the only legitimate explanations are social ones.