Research

Research versus Discovery and Scholarship

The differences between the three terms can be grasped most easily through etymology.

Discovery suggests the revelation of something previously hidden, possibly forgotten, typically for a long time. This perhaps captures the oldest sense of knowledge in the Western intellectual tradition, traceable to the Greek aletheia. A discovery usually carries life-transforming significance because it purports to get at the original nature of things that are intimately connected to the inquirer's identity: We find out who we really are by learning where we belong in the great scheme of things. At the same time, though, in the words of Louis Pasteur, “Discovery favors the prepared mind,” it is not clear that there is a method, let alone a logic, of discovery. Rather, discoveries are often portrayed as products of a receptive mind encountering a serendipitous event. The implication is that a discovery—as opposed to an invention—points to a reality that is never fully under the inquirer's control.

Scholarship suggests a familiarity with a wide range of established sources, the particular combination of which confers authority on the scholar. Scholarship thus tends to focus on the personality of the scholar, whose powers of discrimination are akin to those of a connoisseur who collects only the best works to perpetuate the values they represent. Unsurprisingly, the history of scholarship is intimately tied to that of editing and curation. Although some scholarship makes claims to originality, its value mainly rests on the perceived reliability of the scholar's judgment of sources. On this basis, others—especially students—may then study the scholar's words as accepted wisdom. Thus, the idea of scholarship already implies a public function, as if the scholar were conducting an inquiry on behalf of all humanity. This point is reflected in the traditional academic customs of annual public lectures and public defenses of doctoral dissertations.

Research suggests an exhaustive process of inquiry whereby a clearly defined field is made one's own. An apt metaphor here is the staking of a property claim bounded by the claims of other property holders. It is implied that a property holder is licensed to exploit the field for all the riches it contains. Indeed, research is strongly associated with the deployment of methods that economize on effort to allow for the greatest yield in knowledge. Unlike scholarship, research is by nature a private affair that is tied less to the intrinsic significance of what is investigated than to the effort invested in the activity. Consider it an application of the labor theory of value to the intellectual world. The transition between scholarship and research is most clearly marked in its public justification. The researcher typically needs to do something other than a version of his or her normal activities in order to demonstrate usefulness to others because of the inherently specialized nature of research.

...