Learning to think

The Character of Physical Law-Richard.P.Feynman should be made a compulsory read for every single freshman. I ought to set the records straight, I claim no expertise in any of the principles of the physical philosophies-ad infinitum. However, I feel that there is an absolute lacking of what one could call 'scientific temper', in and around the world that I live in. A pity, in that they will never know how it feels to 'know' something deeply in more than mere words.

The natural language of any of the physical sciences is Mathematics. But it goes beyond that. I quote Feynman in this regard, "Mathematics is not just a language, it is a language plus logic, a sort of tool for intuitive reasoning." Those lucky few of us who have had the privilige to learn such a tool, must at somepoint have wondered at the bizzare-yet- unequivocal effectiveness of Mathematics when applied to the Physical Sciences. To this end I refer the interested reader to another classic in the subject of Natural Philosophy , Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science- Hermann Weyl. It is no small matter that these two books are life changing.

In my quest to become an investigator into the natural sciences, these books have helped me, not only in inculcating this perpetual curiosity that haunts me, but also in encouraging me to think, independently at that too.

I feel we, once a great civilisation have become so self loathing that it has become OK not to EXCEL. We have stopped asking the right questions.

We have forgotten that our Great Epic, The Gita, is nothing more than a quest by the eternal infinite himself to satisfy Arjuna's curiosity. So great was Arjuna's thirst to know that his questions required an extraordinary teacher. I wish you the same.