Objectivity: How is it Possible?

What gives perception objective reference to the external world? The direct realist says that it is our direct conscious contact with the world. The traditional empiricist, following Hume, says that it is the structure and ordering of our experience that makes us take it as objective. Burge explains it entirely in terms of sub-personal or pre-conscious processes, denying that phenomenology or conscious experience plays any essential role. I discuss Burge’s arguments in detail and try to show that, from a philosophical point of view, at least, it is not possible to ignore the relevance of phenomenology to objectivity, and that Hume was on the right track.