I think we probably use the phrase “love of knowledge” differently. The way I see it, if you love knowledge then you must engage with questions addressable with the current tools in a way that brings the field forward, otherwise you are not gaining any knowledge, you are just wasting your time or fooling yourself and others. If certain scientists get spurious results because of poor methodology, there is no love of knowledge in it. I also don’t think they use poor methodology because of desire for knowledge at all: rather, they probably do it because of the pressure to publish and because of the osmosis of some unhealthy culture in their field.
I think we probably use the phrase “love of knowledge” differently. The way I see it, if you love knowledge then you must engage with questions addressable with the current tools in a way that brings the field forward, otherwise you are not gaining any knowledge, you are just wasting your time or fooling yourself and others. If certain scientists get spurious results because of poor methodology, there is no love of knowledge in it. I also don’t think they use poor methodology because of desire for knowledge at all: rather, they probably do it because of the pressure to publish and because of the osmosis of some unhealthy culture in their field.