Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Motivation of scientific research

An article in the online version of the newspaper FAZ these days brought me to think about my own motivation of doing scientific research. I think it's pure curiosity - nothing more, nothing less. But in my professional environment I see at least some doctoral students that strive for relations with more senior researchers/professors/etc. I ask myself: what are their motives? Maybe, to have a better start after graduation. Maybe, because they generally like older people and want to surround themselves with they people they like. For me, it's startling because I cannot resist the feeling that the relation these people build is more of strategic nature, not real. Fortunately I see many other doctoral students whose first motivation is curiosity. And I hope that science as subject will continue to be grounded in curiosity, not in building up pure reputation networks.