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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