I agree wholeheartedly. The other downside of popular science and the news media is that it gives the impression that very little is known. Neuroscience is a good example of this; cosmology another. By reading a textbook, even if you can’t follow everything in it, you get a good idea of the overwhelming amount of knowledge we have in a particular discipline and the kind of evidence that supports it.
For what it’s worth, I wasted years on philosophy and there isn’t a single work I find myself able to recommend, so if anyone wants to take unsolicited anonymous advice on the matter: don’t waste your time on it. The one useful thing I got out of it was realizing that most of the platitudes we usually associate directly with science (science is inherently uncertain, science is inductive, science is about falsification, science is based on skepticism, science doesn’t make metaphysical claims, etc) are premised on untenable philosophical arguments.
I agree wholeheartedly. The other downside of popular science and the news media is that it gives the impression that very little is known. Neuroscience is a good example of this; cosmology another. By reading a textbook, even if you can’t follow everything in it, you get a good idea of the overwhelming amount of knowledge we have in a particular discipline and the kind of evidence that supports it.
For what it’s worth, I wasted years on philosophy and there isn’t a single work I find myself able to recommend, so if anyone wants to take unsolicited anonymous advice on the matter: don’t waste your time on it. The one useful thing I got out of it was realizing that most of the platitudes we usually associate directly with science (science is inherently uncertain, science is inductive, science is about falsification, science is based on skepticism, science doesn’t make metaphysical claims, etc) are premised on untenable philosophical arguments.