Love for Science and Research

The pursuit of originality in scientific research can indeed be a double-edged sword. While it's essential for advancing knowledge and innovation, the pressure for originality can sometimes lead to very negative outcomes. Among the consequences one can list: the risk of plagiarism, the avoidance of cooperation, the pressure for quantity and not quality, the stifling of creativity, the fragmentation and narrowness of the results, and even questionable research for hire.

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It is interesting to notice that in the Middle Ages the preoccupation with creativity, originality, and intellectual property did not exist.? In the Discarded Image (*) the author observed:?

"I doubt if they (middle agers) would have understood our demand for originality or valued those works in their own age which were original any the more on that account. If you had asked Layamon or Chaucer ‘Why do you not make up a brand-new story of your own?’ I think they might have replied (in effect) ‘Surely we are not yet reduced to that?’ Spin something out of one’s own head when the world teems with so many noble deeds, wholesome examples, pitiful tragedies, strange adventures, and merry jests which have never yet been set forth quite so well as they deserve? The originality which we regard as a sign of wealth might have seemed to them a confession of poverty."

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Of course, things have changed, and we no longer are allowed to have that middle age approach. They lived in an oral and handwritten manuscripts culture where stories passed along and were delightfully modified and enhanced every day, until they acquired mythical value.? Now the accessibility of information allows for greater knowledge of data which entices some to make false claims by getting information from an unidentified source – i.e. plagiarism.

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What we need in order to recover the dignity and excellence of research is to labor with delight in the work itself and not just for a rapid academic or financial reward. That is what makes any contribution worthwhile. Researchers need to be infected with love and passion for their activities if they are going to make a difference in the real world.

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We need to learn and experience a total surrender to whatever atmosphere the work is offering itself at a moment. To enjoy the quiddity, the essence of each thing (of each simulation, each lab experiment), to rejoice in its being so interesting and splendid. Then the ideas with come flushing like a spring river.

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In the process of doing research an important component that we need to recognize is the function of the imagination.? In the book Poetic Diction A Study in Meaning (*) the author argued for the essential role of imagination in the creation of meaning and knowledge: “Thus imagination is not only a way or path toward knowledge, but the only way toward new knowledge of reality.”

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Then, let us remember that when we understand these principles we may forget forever all proprietorship in our own works and enjoy them just as if they were someone else's: without pride and without modesty.

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Finally, may we be moved not so much by longing for some idea or opinion of our own as by love for the gift of science and research.? If you do your work with love for the work’s sake without bothering about originality, nine times out of ten, you will become original without ever having noticed it.

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Cheers,

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Paulo

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(*) Discarded Image, CS Lewis, 1964.

(*) Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning, Owen Barfield, 1952

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