receptivity, yearning, admittedly,trade on

But at root what is needed for scientific inquiry is just receptivity to data, skill in reasoning, and yearning for truth.Admittedly, ingenuity can help too.


Many theories, good and bad, do not admit of absolute proof or disproof; we will soon be stressing some of the reasons why this is so. Sadly, it is not just false science that has wantonly traded on this. A few years ago there were large advertisements in major newspapers in which cigaret manufacturers proudly announced that they were about to have independent researchers prove that there was not, after all, any causal connection between cigaret smoking and lung cancer.


trade on
Profit by, exploit, as in The children of celebrities often trade on their family names. [Late 1800s]

receptivity

n. (rĕs`ĕp*tĭv"ĭ*ty̆ or rē`sĕp*tĭv"ĭ*ty̆)

[Cf. F. réceptivité.]

1. The state or quality of being receptive.

2. (Kantian Philos.) The power or capacity of receiving impressions, as those of the external senses.

yearn

(yûrn)
intr.v., yearned, yearn·ing, yearns.

1. To have a strong, often melancholy desire.
2. To feel deep pity, sympathy, or tenderness: yearned over the child's fate.

[Middle English yernen, from Old English geornan, giernan.]

yearner yearn'er n.