This week I've been reflecting on the uncertainty of our knowledge. What is knowledge? When you are searching the internet for information, maybe to use for your thesis, it is easy to believe that the information one gets out of other papers and works is "true" knowledge. This is, as Russell shows in his "The Problems of Philosophy" not always the case. I have come to the conclusion that it is important, vital one might say, to question our relationship and our dependency on knowledge when we are pursuing research.

Russells points of view has indeed affected how I perceive my surroundings, and also the things I know, or believe that I know. A great song by Billy Paul goes like "There's two sides to every story; there's a right, there's a wrong, there's the truth" (The song is called Brown Baby). Russell sort of support this, but he also disputes this, meaning that we might never really know the universal truth of things, and when you go that far in your speculations, problems arise.

But I digress, so let us get back to what this means for us engineers. That is a question that surfaced both during the lectures and the seminars, without a good answer being presented. So now, why is this important? I believe that it all comes down to perspective. Perspective on the world, it's different "truths" and the strength to be able to view our knowledge in different ways is key to being an innovative and versatile engineer. Engineers like that are able to adapt and understand the different needs and truths that one might encounter out there in the field, or when producing a master's thesis.

This is why Russell's work is so great, and also why it is and should continue to be, a part in our education.

//Love Larsson