coming to know the world

[Brainwalter]

Economics!

(Austrian school holla!)

[JaBlue]

(only) bump

[Georgia Avenue]

Take a philosophy of math and science class. Or take 4 years of them, its even better. The raw classes will spend 0 time talking about what the facts and calculations actually mean.

It sounds though that what you want is the study of Epistemology.
Try the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Heideggers Being and Time, Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Plato's, well, Collected Works.

GL.
--GA

[KRANTZ]

read a ton of books, from every genre, every country, both fiction and nonfiction, from different time periods as well

[Senor Choppy]

[george w]

know your mind and you'll know the world.

-anonymous

[Triumph36]

Did you actually read the Tractatus, GA? Be honest.

[Georgia Avenue]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you actually read the Tractatus, GA? Be honest.

[/ QUOTE ]

Datchev precept on Wittgenstein vs Foucalt ftw.
I also never missed a seminar, so uh, yeah, pwnd.

[daryn]

jablue don't listen to those morons they are just idiots, you will come across them all too frequently in life [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] it's sad

anyway your question is the reason i decided to get a degree in physics

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]
Take a philosophy of math and science class. Or take 4 years of them, its even better. The raw classes will spend 0 time talking about what the facts and calculations actually mean.

It sounds though that what you want is the study of Epistemology.
Try the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Heideggers Being and Time, Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Plato's, well, Collected Works.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sweet jesus, this seems like entirely backwards. I'll agree that a slight grounding in philosophy of science and epistemology would probably suit him well, but to say that you have no sense what the calculations and measurements mean after four years of studying science seems pretty out there. After reading Wittgenstein and Heidegger, do you have a better insight into the "real meaning" of quantum mechanics? EDIT: QM is too stereotypical. Some more down to earth examples: genetics, geology, electronics, etc.

Spending forever trying to figure out all the intricacies of what it takes to really know something is a pretty good way to keep yourself from ever finding out - "if you have to ask, you'll never have time to know." Of the limited amount of philosophy I've read, this is why I'm such a big fan of Hume. He seems to pretty much come to the conclusion that "Yep, it's impossible to know anything with the same certainty as deductive proof. But [censored] it, it all works anyway," which seems to me like the working attitude that most scientists should have.

Back to the OP - your goal is a pretty standard one for 18 year old kids, and some people keep it longer. Most people eventually make the concession that there's so much [censored] out there that the chances of knowing it all is zero, and pick something to specialize in. Cast a broad net, find what you like, and go for it. While career concerns shouldn't dominate everything, don't forget about them, either.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the most important form of "knowing the world" there is is just going to come from getting older, talking to a bunch of people, and trying to think about a whole bunch of different perspectives. While it's not all of what's interesting with the world, humanity is a pretty big [censored] chunk of it.