Is there a Dr/doctor in the house? (Addended 18dec20)

George Rebane

Joseph Epstein’s column in 11dec20 WSJ (here) about Jill Biden’s doctorate started a national row that has even penetrated our country’s hinterlands and backwoods.  The FLOTUS-elect likes to be called “Dr Biden”, and the compliant media has, well, complied to the extent that Dr Biden has become an ever-present, in-your-face item in today’s news.  Most people (including Epstein) debating the use of that honorific in a salutation are innocent of the genesis of ‘doctor’ and ‘Dr’, so maybe a little background would help.

History records the first use of the upper-case honorific ‘Doctor’ in the 13^th century at the dawning of universities in the west.  (Actually, some universities, e.g. University of Bologna (1088), were founded earlier.)  Doctor derives from the Latin docere (‘to teach’), and from the start Doctors were always teachers, and overwhelmingly teachers who taught what they themselves had discovered or developed.  In other words, Doctor became the appellation of someone that society recognized as having expanded the body or shoreline of human knowledge.  Students traveled across continents to sit with noted Doctors in order to imbibe what the learned teachers had discovered and taught.  (more here and here)

And for the centuries that followed, to be recognized as Doctor required that you had contributed some new and useful knowledge to your civilization, and were willing to teach it to others, usually in an academic setting.  In old-speak, to earn a doctorate the person had to demonstrate that he could ‘philosophize’ (in newspeak, to research things novel and unique).  In fact, the term ‘science’ (Latin ‘scientia’ or knowledge) came into use only recently.  Previously it was known as natural philosophy, and people practicing science were called natural philosophers.  The main takeaway here is that for the centuries that followed, academies bestowed the academic degree of Doctor on a person who had accomplished a rigorous course of study, passed certain examinations, and contributed something new and unique to the body of human knowledge as acknowledged by a group of peers (other Doctors).

As the years wore on, the honorific Doctor was also adopted without much protest by those who just taught some notable esoteria at the university level.  In a vain attempt to reserve the doctorate degree for knowledge discoverers, the universities invented the intermediate graduate degree of Master, the achievement of which allowed you to get a job as a lecturer (‘reader’) in academe.  But the cat was out of the bag as more teachers started appending Doctor to their names.

This practice became a flood of confusion as medicine became a more formalized pursuit.  We recall that for centuries the local physician was also the village barber/surgeon – a tradesman not worthy of academic recognition.  But then certain physicians started their own programs of research into medicines, chemistry, physiology, and surgical techniques.  And the nascent field was ripe for the pickings; all kinds of new things were discovered and made known through systematic study.  These learned physicians became teachers at universities and were natural candidates for the Doctor appellation, because they had earned it according to the standing rules of academe and society in general.  For example, Benjamin Franklin became Dr Franklin without the benefit of attending university.  The honorific was spontaneously awarded him for a spate of discoveries and developments ranging from the electric nature of lighting to efficient design of space heating stoves.  But the requirement for expanding the frontiers of knowledge survived until … .

Things began to change somewhere around the turn of the 19^th century.  Physicians in academe had by that time started schools of medicine, many of them connected to or as parts of established universities.  And they wanted the graduates of their rigorous course of study and examinations to also be called Doctor.  The academic establishment succumbed with a compromise.  Since the newly accredited physicians had not qualified as knowledge discoverers (only practitioners), the new degree of Doctor of Medicine or MD was invented, and everyone was satisfied as long as they were labelled Dr in polite society.  The knowledge discoverers then retained the expanded appellation of Doctor of Philosophy or PhD, and everyone seemed satisfied.

Well, that opened the flood gates.  Since true scientists, Doctors with PhDs, were few and far between to farmers and city dwellers, their only experience with someone called Doctor was with local physicians who quickly began to be referred to as doctors, or simply ‘the doctor’ – and please note the important introduction of the lower case here.  In the 19^th century Doctor was cloned from an honorific to a noun, and its case-sensitive usage was forever confounded in the minds or ordinary folk.  The main takeaway was that when someone heard ‘doctor’ or Dr Smith, they immediately fastened on to the notion of physician – a doctor was an MD, and that was that.

This practice in western societies collided with another well-established practice of our civilization – the use of honorifics to acknowledge an individual’s most important or highest accomplishment.  Civilians having served and achieved notable military rank were forever referred to as Colonel/General/Major Smith or as ‘the colonel/general/major’.  The same went for political, legal, and professional ranks.  People having served as a senator/congressman or ambassador or secretary or minister or judge or … were from there on addressed with their capitalized honorific instead of Mr or Ms.  And those accomplishments also did referential duty as ‘the senator, speaker, …’.  In Europe, until the middle of the last century it was even de rigueur to label graduate engineers with the honorific ‘Dipl Ins’.

After WW2 a notable sea change occurred as thousands of returning GIs went to college on various ‘GI bills’.  This wave coincided with the awakening of the civil rights movement in the 1950s.  The new watchword was ‘equality’, which was supposed to be discovered, applied, and/or imposed in every sphere of human activity.  We were quickly to become equal and homogeneous in and along every dimension of our beings, some even more equal than others.

As a result, in academe people started asking why everyone shouldn’t get a college degree, why everyone shouldn’t be beautiful, why everyone is not awarded a prize, why everyone should not pass with a high grade, etc.  Recognizing some and not others was clear evidence of discrimination on the basis of whatever was real and or convenient – race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, …, and, of course, education.  The last one was a bit dicey since traditionally and practically it had always involved merit and accomplishment, a clear differentiator among all humans.  To ‘level the playing field’ meritocracy had to be rethought and corralled if necessary.  To no one’s surprise, our educators have now progressed to the heights of woke where evaluating a student’s merit has been eliminated altogether.

To shorten this story, it was not long until colleges and universities began to invent majors and major fields in which everyone who fogs a mirror could succeed.  Everyone was now qualified to be college educated, even though employers looked with gimlet eyes at the useless skillset with which many (most?) students were graduating.  But more and more kept being admitted to colleges at all levels, and all abetted by government programs of countless colorations which allowed academe to keep hiking the tuitions and fees charged the subsidized students.  And yes, one of the many benefits of the new higher educational landscape was a profusion of ‘doctorates’ in every imaginable field – write a paper, get a doctorate.

Most universities giving accredited PhD and ScD degrees continued to require the candidates to demonstrate the ability to conduct productive research that expanded our shoreline of knowledge.  However, this requirement is a bit too subtle for main street, that made everyone’s doctorate equivalent as intended by our social engineers.  Well, not quite.  The average person does make a difference when it comes to physicians, dentists, veterinarians, and chiropractors – to them, these are the ‘real doctors’ worthy of a Dr in front of their names.

I have to admit that there is a bit of hubris among the ranks of PhDs.  Those holding that kind of a ticket quietly look askance at all the other JDs, EdDs, DFA, … (here’s a more complete list), and that hubris is reinforced when it’s made known what was required get such ‘doctorates’ as compared with what they had to do to earn their PhD in, say, a STEM field.  PhDs correctly view the medical practitioner doctors as sophisticated technicians.  And all the other kinds of Drs are viewed more or less as a public relations bamboozle on the country’s less-read citizenry.

[Full disclosure, the author of this biased screed holds a dual-field (complex dynamic systems and computer science) PhD in engineering, preceded by a BS in Physics and a MSE in Control & Estimation.  Additionally, I am a California Registered Professional Engineer in Control Systems.]

[Addendum]  An interesting sidelight of the use of doctorates, especially by those with PhDs, is how the title/honorific ‘Professor’ fits in the academe’s pedagogical landscape.  A professor is someone who specializes in the profession of a specific body of knowledge.  In higher education it is also used in the title of academic rank – ‘Associate Professor’, ‘Adjunct Professor’, etc.  Formally, to teach at the university level one does not need a doctorate, and therefore a college lecturer with that deficit can adopt the title/honorific ‘Professor’, and prominently display it on the door to his office and on the name-line of his business card.  The interesting point here is that when someone is a college professor and also has a PhD, they never label themselves as Professor, even though others will properly use that honorific.  The pedagogue with a PhD always has on his door ‘Dr Smith’, or ‘John Smith, PhD’, or both, but never a naked ‘Professor Smith’.

Often in humanities departments this convention is further extended by professors who have PhDs and those with other doctorates.  The non-PhDs do not like to advertise their lesser doctorates in a hallway of office doors, and often use the appropriate professor title instead.

[Addendum2]  The Republicans continue to speak softly and carry no stick.  To counter the Left’s nationwide anti-American ‘1619 Project’, in its waning days the administration has launched something called the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission.  I don’t know if this commission will have any legs under Biden, but its composition announced by the WH sure reveals the GOP’s squishy backbone when it comes to political correctness.  In the graphic below, note that only Carol Swain is provided the Dr honorific.  Dr Swain holds a PhD in political science and is black, so no blame no shame in identifying her correctly in such an assemblage.  But half the other notables on the list also hold PhDs, but for some reason their accomplished honorifics have been omitted, as if to signal some kind of virtue in elevating a female and black above the crowd of overwhelmingly white, similarly educated males.  And this is today's GOP, our best hope and political opposition we have to oppose the approaching autocracy.

Comments

[George Rebane]

At the local Fric and Frac website two of our liberal luminaries have been trying, without much success, to figure out the ‘Dr Jill Biden’ brouhaha. In the process they took the opportunity to include me in their deliberations. As an example of what I discuss in the above commentary, neither Fric nor Frac have a clue about academic doctorates, nor do they seem to have gleaned the correct degree for FLOTUS-elect. Perhaps the lamestream news outlets they consume are equally confused. Fric and Frac believe she has a PhD, and don’t know that she actually holds an EdD. This error gives them the mistaken opportunity to claim that Dr Jill and Dr George share something in common, when we do not. Anyway, it’s all a big knee-slapper over there where Fric (I may have misspelled his name) takes a parting snark at me with his “Übermensch” remark that continues his campaign to paint me as a racist. The unending joys of ignorance.
https://sierrafoothillsreport.com/2020/12/14/dr-jill-biden-and-dr-george-rebane-have-something-in-common-after-all/

[D]

The Latin verb docēre [dɔˈkeːrɛ] means to teach. This should be self explanatory to all but the most dim among us. Dr. Biden is a teacher. End of story.

[fish]

Posted by: D | 16 December 2020 at 02:00 PM

Fric? Or fat...err...Frac?

[George Rebane]

D 200pm - Again you miss the point; regular like clockwork. Just because the progenitor of Dr is docere, to teach, doesn't mean or even imply that the adopted appellation of Dr was then loosely applied to all who just taught - its bestowment communicated a much higher achievement. That lax appropriation of the honorific occurred in the latter part of the 20th century. I apparently did not make that clear enough for you to understand.

[Bill Tozer]

One man's hard hitting opinion. One gal's meat is another guy's poison. One man's trash is another person's treasure.

Jill Biden’s Doctorate Is Garbage Because Her Dissertation Is Garbage

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/jill-bidens-doctorate-is-garbage-because-her-dissertation-is-garbage/

Dr. Pepper or Dr. Demento? Garbage in, garbage out.

[Scott O]

Duh 2:00 - My parents taught me well as in turn my wife and I taught our children well. We're all doctors, right?
It has been the custom in our country for decades to not call someone with Jill's credentials a 'doctor', beyond a few moments of higher ed grandstanding. In public, her role is to have her hair sniffed and her finger sucked by her husband.
Since she was happy to have her husband run with that during the campaign, she should gracefully submit to that position in the White House.

[Don Bessee]

Well lets take a look at her so called dissertation and who let it through the review? ROFLOL -

Biden's 137-page "executive position paper" discussed issues of student retention at community colleges.

"It's bad," Matt Bethlehemanti tweeted Sunday, according to RedState, before listing examples of word salad like, "The unique nature of the classroom allows for a complexity of problems as well."

Elsewhere, Biden appears to forget her fractions, writing, "Three quarters of the class will be Caucasian; one quarter of the class will be African American; one seat will hold a Latino; and the remaining seats will be filled with students of Asian descent or non-resident aliens."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/viral-twitter-thread-criticizes-jill-biden-dissertation

Cue fric and frac

;-)

[Scott O]

Don - you be so racist. All arithmatic and shee-it.

[The Estonian Fox]

Whom does The New York Times consider a doctor? R.J.Lehmann. Analysis of the NYT Style Guide. Excerpts from a long article.

https://www.rstreet.org/2015/10/27/whom-does-the-new-york-times-consider-a-doctor/

"Thus, head-to-head, we see that (NY) Times blogs refer to Jill Biden as “Dr.” nearly half the time (48.3 percent) while referring to Ben Carson as “Dr.” just 8.9 percent of the time. She is called “Mrs. Biden” just 6.9 percent of the time, while he is called “Mr. Carson” 34.7 percent of the time.

Incidentally, our prior second lady, Lynne Cheney, holds a Ph.D. in British literature from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. By my count, her name has appeared in The New York Times or its blogs 293 times. She has been identified as “Dr.,” on either first or second reference, exactly zero times.

The simple – and, no doubt, at least partially accurate – explanation for these findings is political bias on the part of the notoriously liberal New York Times. A more sinister explanation could be inferred that Carson’s race played a role. Is there any other potential explanation?"

Maybe stupidity? No human law against that yet.

[Bill Tozer]

‘Whoopi Goldberg Calls Ed.D. Jill Biden ‘a Hell of a Doctor’ Who Would Be Great Surgeon General’

“Joe Biden’s wife,” she said. “She would never do it [take the Surgeon General’s job] but, yeah, she’s a hell of a doctor. She’s an amazing doctor.”......

“The only thing that Goldberg knows about Jill Biden is that she is a Democrat, and that was all she needed to know to tout her imaginary medical record as “wonderful” and amazing.””

https://hermancain.com/whoopi-goldberg-calls-ed-d-jill-biden-doctor-great-surgeon-general/?

[Bill Tozer]

Dr. Rebane @ 2:42 pm, Dec. 16

From memory, the word physician means ‘healer’ from Latin. Also, ‘to massage’ also comes from the same root word of old.

So, we have apparently two kinds of real doctors plus another category. We have medial doctors like Dr. Ben Carson, we have those who have added new information to the body of knowlege, and we have ED-docs that teach, whether or not they step in a classroom.

With the plummeting test scores of our nation’s youth, the purposely designed edit to lower standards, and the all crap teachers put in our children’s minds to scare the hell out of them them and make the students feel responsible for things that happened a couple hundred years ago, I can confidently declare that our teachers generally suck, and are a disgrace to the teaching profession in general. Not very bright as well. Those hare brained ideas that have destroyed America’s public education standing in the world and CA’s standing in America are usually set forth as policies coming from those clueless ones with Ed-doctorates.

Two of the group of “doctors” save lives and add something of value to humanity. The third class of doctors (education) have contributed greatly to the dumbing down of America. Those with Ed doctors have a debt to society of which they cannot ever repay. Chaos, confusion, turmoil, carnage, and falsehoods, rewriting history, mediocrity, ad infinitum is all they have to offer society. No thanks to what Ed-docs peddle; I use toilet paper.

[George Rebane]

BillT 1204pm - You're a hard man Mr Tozer. Isn't there a gentler and kinder manner in which you can point out the truths in the sordid record of our educators and education industry? ;-)

[Walt]

Don't feel TOO bad Dr. "R",, The Brits cheapened knighthood too. It could be bought for the right price. And NOW ONLINE!!
https://establishedtitles.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiAoOz-BRBdEiwAyuvA6w2ciZZl-IzNLnGH5EQjAuy12h1ZHOrJr7mukF866jwWi98QE3usKRoCCWUQAvD_BwE

[paul emery]

Bill writes:

"The third class of doctors (education) have contributed greatly to the dumbing down of America."

Wow Bill! You are contending that those doctors contributed greatly to the election of Trump as President due to the dumbing down of America? Wow, it all makes sense now. thanks for the insight.

[Bill Tozer]

Walt @ 1:05 pm

I noticed Sir Van Morrison is now on the Lefties cancel forever list.
But, Brother Walt, Matt Walsh said it best. We have to call Matt “Lord Walsh” now just because he is an essential worker (media). Lord Walsh Essential. Matt said he could buy a plot of land in Scotland just to make it official.

I can send off some money and in return receive a divinity tile so I can marry off a friend. Common practice. Call me the Very Reverend Chief Wahoo, non-essential, but protected by the First Amendment.

[Gregory]

punch 110pm

Wow, Paul, that's even dumber than I've come to expect from you.

I recall a piercing of both Right and Left wing beliefs by Jordan Petersen (dare I refer to him as a Dr?) that NO, there isn't a job for everyone, and NO, you can't train anyone to do any job.

Meaning also NO, you can't turn a 105 IQ teacher into a 140 IQ rocket scientist by sitting them in a chair and forcing educational drivel into them for another three years.

[Walt]

Well my friend Bill,, Thanks to DNA testing,, Emery must now call me LORD Walt.(by birthright) King Edward was one of my forefathers. (that and 15 bucks at Starbucks will get me a cup of bad coffee)
This ONLY applies to serf(royal pee-on) Emery. He's a monarchy lover. ( The Revolutionary war was illegal in his opinion)

By the way Chief Tozer..(that's got a good ring to it...)
Has Emery forked over the title to his land yet? He's supposedly woke to the indigenous people's land theft.

[Bill Tozer]

Reply to our paid local news director @ 1:10 pm

Thank you Punchy. You usually don’t leave yourself that wide open by throwing such a big floating slow pitch my way. Again I thank you.

“Wow Bill! You are contending that those doctors contributed greatly to the election of Trump as President due to the dumbing down of America? Wow, it all makes sense now. thanks for the insight.“

Thank you for proving my point. Since the left owns public education lock, stock, and barrel, that would indeed explain why Biden got 80 million votes. 80 million, what a hoot!
Later D

[Walt]

Score 2!,, for Bill. Yes Bill, outcome based education,,and fuzzy math.

[paul emery]

So you agree that Biden won the election with 80 million votes Bill.

[Bill Tozer]

So you agree to pull Biker Bill's finger Paul

[Bill Tozer]

WHAT’S THE RX FOR DR. JILL
"The great thing about the “Dr. Jill Biden” issue is that it means the Bidens and the media will double down on this pathetic pretension and remind a large swath of the population the condescending elitism at the heart of liberalism today. This, at the same time liberalism is agonizing over the need to overthrow the whole idea of meritocracy, which is the invention of an older liberalism, because our conventions of meritocracy (things like test scores, academic performance in difficult fields, etc) are not kind to liberalism’s favored victim groups just now."

:Time was when everyone understood that Ed.D degrees were substantively weak, and largely grew as part of a racket for teachers and administrators to get higher salaries and puff up their resumes. Even People magazine, which you’d think you could rely upon to puff up the egos of politicians, once understood this:"

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/whats-the-rx-for-dr-jill.php

[Walt]

Someone slap Emery upside the head. Election rigging is for the other page.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 305pm - Your impenetrable election logic belongs somewhere else.

[paul emery]

Oh George you guys are so thin skinned you can't take a little jiving . Kinda tough with your guy having to pack up and get out of town but hey that's the biz he chooses to be in.

[Walt]

No, buzzard of Broad St.,,, rules apply to you too.
Ask Dougy.

[Walt]

Oh........... Wait...... Emery thinks he's a Dr. too.
Plenty of practicing without a licence for the past four years thinking he's a qualified psychologist.

[D]

DoctorateGate...
By what salutation is Henry Kissenger referred?

“Dr. and Mr.” or “Mr. and Dr.”? Which is correct?
December 13, 2014, 12:00 a.m.
I recently received the following letter from a reader:

How do I address a letter to a husband and wife when the wife is a PhD and the husband is just Mr.? Would it be Mr. & Dr. or Dr. & Mr.?

The answer to the question is pretty straightforward: When using the wife’s professional title, you would address the letter to: Dr. Jane Smith and Mr. Stanley Smith or Dr. Jane and Mr. Stanley Smith. The standard is to start with the higher titled person, male or female."

https://www.boston.com/news/jobs/2014/12/11/how-do-you-address-a-letter-to-dr-and-mr-or-mrs

[D]

How do the Cons refer to Condelezza Rice?

Conservatives - doing their best to keep women in the kitchen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_politicians_with_doctorates

[Gregory]

"D" 892am

"Conservatives - doing their best to keep women in the kitchen."

Leftists... doing their best to smear their opponents out of bounds.

[Gregory]

punchy 611pm

"Oh George you guys are so thin skinned you can't take a little jiving . Kinda tough with your guy having to pack up and get out of town but hey that's the biz he chooses to be in."

Paul... what's with Ms. Harris not having resigned her Senate seat yet? Keeping her options open?

[Bill Tozer]

MC: Is they are doctor in the house?
A: I’m a doctor.
MC: High ya, doc!

https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2020/12/jive.jpg?w=519&ssl=1

THE WEEK IN PICTURES: DOCTOR WHO EDITION
I’ve got it! The solution to the whole “Dr. Jill Biden” issue is right in front of us: she should be the next Dr. Who. Or maybe Hollywood should do a spin-off series, called “Dr. What.” It could even cross genres, with Dr. Jill Biden running into the Tardis, and coming out with a different superhero costume every time. Why not? It’s no fun being a liberal if you can’t make stuff up.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/the-week-in-pictures-doctor-who-edition.php

[Bill Tozer]

THE “DR.” WILL SEE YOU NOW
Roger Kimball’s is the unmistakable voice of the January New Criterion editorial “The ‘Dr.’ will see you now.” Roger takes snapshots of the episode arising from Joesph Epstein’s Wall Street Journal column on Jill Biden, Ed.D., from a variety of perspectives. Roger arrives at the heart of the matter in his conclusion:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/the-dr-will-see-you-now.php