Reality is made of trees, rocks, wombats, people, cars, houses and croissants, among other things.
But really, we bring these meanings to the physical matter; we individuate the mountain from the surrounding terrain; we group the hair, skin, claws and wobbling bulk together and call it one wombat.
So if reality is that which is objective, something independent from any particular perspective, then reality must be made of things stripped of their meaning. Reality is brute matter: atoms, forces, fields and spacetime.
But now I’m going to hit you with a philosophy of science which makes this impossible.
Science cannot claim the metaphysical reality of the concepts it uses. A simple glance at history and a demand for humility should suffice to burst the bubble on, for example, the idea that all matter is made of atoms. That is, if we hear such a statement in an ontological register, one which claims it to be objectively true and not subject to revision. If it were subject to revision then we would be in the realm of epistemology, and we would be left without a claim on reality without us looking at it.
So, we seem to be in a bind. Reality can’t be made of things of common sense like apples and basketballs, since their “thingness” disappears as soon as we do. But the things of science which are supposed to underlie this film of human meaning—atoms, photons, cells—are nonetheless still things. The outlines which make them distinct from the rest of the “stuff” in the universe will likewise disappear with us.
So is our conclusion that reality doesn’t exist? No, I think that would be absurd. I think we are not without reason in supposing that there is a substantial, diverse world which supports our consciousness and its meaningful things.
Our mistake was to think reality is unmediated by us. Reality is objective, yes, but objectivity is a structure that we bring to the world.
Note that the converse is also true: we are mediated by reality. There is no mind or consciousness floating free of the stuff of our bodies.
These two ideas taken together denies both a naive materialism and an absolute idealism.