Dear Friends,
First of all I would like to wish you all a magnificent 2018.
Secondly we are (in a very healthy manner) back to the same old issues that originated this list.
Now, I’m really pacified about two things:
1. A PhD is a defined form of doctoral studies
2. there are other Doctoral studies that are not PhDs
The title Philosophy Doctor was born in German Universities in the 1600’s and 1700’s because the professors from the “science faculties” had no title compared to the ones of Theology, Law and Medicine. William Clarke’s book “Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University” will enlighten you on these matters.
The title was born not as the result of a “program of study” but as a claim from the “other” faculties to be at the same level as the 400 year old faculties where “doctors" taught. Professors/teachers of “Philosophy (Science)” would like to be at the same level and have the same social status as the doctors of Law, Medicine and Theology. The professors on the “philosophy” faculties started to use the title of “Philosophy Doctors” by self entitlement.
The introduction of the term “Philosophy” before the title “Doctor” had, in consequence, the aim of claiming a methodological diference in teaching subjects but also in the type of knowledge to be taught. A philosophy doctor was someone that used other methods different from exclusively study and argue/discuss from texts, namely: experiments, mathematical and geometrical calculations, projectional readings, practical exploits (different excruciatingly from medicine doctors).
Like in the early modern period scientists were engaged in the creation of a new type of doctors, we should be claiming a new type of doctors. Like the “philosophy faculties” of early modern Germany, new faculties claim doctoral dignity. Art and Design professors just gain awareness of their role in higher education, their capacity of attracting students, their appeal in a changing society, their truly decisive methodological uniqueness, and claimed for a new PhD. In fact what we were claiming was a new title, a new set of programs and... we were simply eroded by the “classic” PhD. There is a scientific integrity in a PhD that we should respect -and cherish- but this doesn’t mean that OUR doctoral studies should be alike.
“This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design” says in the subtitle on my email box.
Now it is clear to me that what I’m interested in is “research in Design” that may lead to a doctoral level that is not a PhD. Sadly Science ubducted “Philosophy” to be part of their title. I would like to have this word on the title of Design Doctors, but it seems now that they are irreconcilable.
In the beginning of my participation on this list I was really interested in being part of constructing a “Ph” specifically for Design. What I was really interested was to understand what was different in Design from Science in order to define research in an otherness away from science… Well, what we got now, relentlessly, is bullying by established sciences on our (lack of) scientific methods. This is quite fair, like it was fair the reaction of true doctors facing the emergence of philosophy doctors in early modern Germany.
It is clear that the PhD had a major role in the formation, development and consolidation of the “Research University” originated in the “Philosophy Faculties” of the German University. Maybe a new university is emerging.
Maybe the faults we see in the actual university are the magma from where a new university will be formed: The "Design University”. The the Herbert Simon prophecy “not only engineers design, everyone…
Cheers to the new year,
Eduardo
Eduardo Corte-Real
PhD Arch.
Associate Professor
Professor Associado com Agregação
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Av. Dom Carlos I, nº4, 1200-649 Lisboa, Portugal
T: +351 213 939 600
> No dia 29/12/2017, às 14:09, Gunnar Swanson <[log in to unmask]> escreveu:
>
> Ken,
>
> I don’t have a dog in the fight here. I don’t have a PhD and expect to die doctorateless. I do not supervise PhD students and am unlikely to ever do so. I do, however, interact with a lot of people with PhD degrees in quite a few subjects including those supervising PhD students. They make up quite a broad range.
>
> While I do not disagree with most of what you wrote, I find two things curious.
>
> The first is that you define a PhD degree in terms of a self-perpetuating system. It is interesting that the use for PhD degree seems to be the ability to allow others to get a PhD degree. Research training and disciplinary knowledge are seemingly useless unless coupled with the ability to confer different research and disciplinary knowledge on the next generation. What's up with that?
>
> The second is that the PhD is a license to teach not just PhD students but undergraduates. And not just research but the non-research part of the ostensible subject matter. If this implied licensing is the worry, shouldn’t we fear a PhD degree in design given to a researcher who is not qualified to teach how to do design? After all, many more design professors will spend much more time teaching people who want to be designers rather than researchers.
>
>
> Gunnar
>
> Gunnar Swanson
> East Carolina University
> graphic design program
>
> http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Gunnar Swanson Design Office
> 1901 East 6th Street
> Greenville NC 27858
> USA
>
> http://www.gunnarswanson.com
> [log in to unmask]
> +1 252 258-7006
>
>
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