Well at least Sir Christopher Wren did not need a PHD Circumspice
or Michelangelo. Leonardo went around proclaiming his genius, writing
everything backwards, never finished anything and the punters still loved
him
As for Mickey mouse, I would be willing to bet some millions of words and
dollars have been spent academically analysing him
If I build the better mouse trap do you really want to know how I've done it
when the product is there for you to see. MIckey watch out.
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of m99m
> Sent: 08 March 2003 00:54
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: PhD Suppositories
>
>
> Of course the PhD system is discriminative - that is fundamental to the
> research exercise.
>
> To be awarded a PhD at a British university, the thesis needs to *report*
> research that makes an original and (mildly) significant contribution to
> knowledge, set against the background of current knowledge and thinking in
> a particular field or fields, using methodology that is well understood,
> explained and justified, blah, blah, blah.
>
> Although "doing a PhD" is notoriously an isolating experience, there is a
> high premium on the *communicating* phase. It is not enough to announce,
> e.g. "I am a genius. I have discovered new knowledge. It cannot be
> explained and justified in the boring words of less brilliant people."
>
> (Well... you can try it, if you like; but you won't get a PhD,
> except maybe
> in some M**ky M**se topics, of which I just put down a few
> examples, but on
> second thoughts, have erased them).
>
> You have to produce the evidence, defend it in print and
> verbally, and make
> it stand up. You don't need to stand up yourself, if you have any physical
> difficulty in doing so; but the evidence must be appropriate and well
> constructed, and must hold together under sceptical challenge and
> argument.
>
> This requirement obviously discriminates against 99% of the population --
> but then, nobody is forced to do a doctorate. You can go down to
> the pub or
> the park, and address the people there, and convince them that you are a
> genius and that they should buy you a beer for the privilege of hearing
> your thoughts. Or whatever. Thousands of people (well... thousands of
> men, at any rate) do that every day, and receive tangible liquid reward,
> rather than themselves forking out for the privilege of flogging their
> brains for several years in search of a significant contribution to
> knowledge.
>
> The requirement of communicating and defending the contribution to
> knowledge, though it is discriminatory, is not hard to understand. People
> in pubs, traffic jams, kitchens and baths regularly imagine they have had
> some great Insight into Life -- and occasionally it may be so, but almost
> all such flashes go down the pan, or can be shown easily enough to be
> proverbial lore of great antiquity, when stripped of their
> temporary poetic
> dress.
>
> (The 'new knowledge' in a PhD thesis is expected to last a bit longer --
> maybe 15 or 20 years, before it is exposed as having all the conceptual
> flaws and limitations of its time and place!)
>
> simply,
> m99m
>
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