Alexander, without replying to the whole list, this is just to say I completely see your point. I worry about the level of (unacknowledged) privilege of those who insist a PhD is simply a leisure activity in the pursuit of knowledge.
Bests,
Nadine
Dr Nadine Muller
Lecturer in English Literature & Cultural History
Liverpool John Moores University
John Foster Building
Mount Pleasant
Liverpool
L3 5UZ
Office: John Foster Building, 1.26
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Twitter: @Nadine_Muller
Website: www.nadinemuller.org.uk<http://www.nadinemuller.org.uk>
On 13 Nov 2014, at 20:04, Alexander Hay <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
You don't need a PhD to have knowledge, whereas a PhD can cost you time that might be better spent developing a career outside of academia (unless you're from the hard sciences, at which point your odds of employment both within and without academia are much improved).
While it is controversial to say this, a PhD is a means of training for a specific profession, namely academia. It's very hard to be a peripatetic full-time thinker if there aren't enough peripatetic full-time thinker positions to go around.
On 13 November 2014 19:57, John Richardson (Social Sciences) <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
You're wrong Alexander, both on the specific point about a PhD not having much weight outside of academia and the wider point about the 'point' of knowledge.
Really, I do worry if people inside academia have such a narrowly instrumental idea of what a doctorate is for.
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