It is my belief that one major raison d'etre of academia is to advance the frontier of knowledge for mankind.  While an academician should do his/her best to anwer the call of duty to dessininate knowledge, a more fundamental and challenging task is to generate knowledge.  In the pursuit of knowledge, I believe that the researcher should be a realist, who is rational, methodical, and truthful in his scientific endeavors.

First and foremost, a good researcher must be realistic, not metaphysical or relativistic, about the world around him.  To him, the world is finite and the truth is waiting to be discovered, although he may never get to the truth even after persistent trials.

To obtain truth, a good researcher must be rational and methodical.  He must follows the scientific method of induction and deduction.  He should utilize descriptive and inferential statistics as tools of evidence gathering.  But he should also realize the inherent limitations of his tools.  For instance, no matter how hard he tries, it is impossible to prove the truth.

A good researcher should be truthful.  He should conduct his scientific enquiries in an honest and ethical manner.  Further, he should be modest about what he can and can not do, and about the significance of his "opus magnum," always mindful that to err is human.
 

---

Back to Yong Zhang's Home Page                                                                 Mail to Yong Zhang