# Perceptual Objectivity **Opening (not a real abstract):** A central preoccupation of philosophy in the twentieth century was to determine conditions under which it is possible empirically and accurately to represent elements in the physical environment as having specific physical characteristics. Such representation was widely, and I think correctly, taken to constitute a basic type of objectivity. Objectivity in this sense consists in veridical representation of a mind-independent reality. In the second half of the twentieth century, many philosophers saw empirical representation of the physical environment as conceptually necessary for all representation. I do not accept this view. I think that representation of mathematical and mental matters is conceptually and This article has had a long evolution. I have given ancestors of it as part of the Carus **Authors:** [[Burge]]