Ph.D. means literary “teacher of philosophy”, from Latin Philosophiae Doctor, abbreviated to Ph.D, sometimes, as at Oxford, also D.Phil.
With this definition in mind, and a practical approach, I started a careful examination of everyone I knew to be a teacher of philosophy. In the following days, I observed lecturers, researchers and some professors strolling around, going to seminars, gathering for meetings, having a coffee break and casually chatting in the corridors. It didn’t take me long to perceive a certain discrepancy between the observation and the image I had in mind of teachers of philosophy. Such image was somehow impressed upon me by the famous painting ‘The School of Athens’ by Raphael, which depicts a hall in which Plato and Aristotle are surrounded by other famous ancient philosophers.
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Particular of the School of Athens by Raphael. The detail is from a picture of the whole painting available on wikipedia. |
The inconsistency grows even more when scrutinising the teachers-to-be, or Ph.D. students, who on average—although there are exceptions—cannot be seen during morning hours, walk around with music players, wear trainers and sloppy T-shirts, and have a cheerful and carefree, only occasionally downcast, appearance. One of course must take into consideration that music players and trainers did not exist in the ancient Greece, and fashion had not produced fancy T-shirts yet. However, even making allowances for all the aspects that modernity has introduced, it seems still clear that the current meaning of Ph.D. does not match the literal meaning of teacher of philosophy.
My first attempt to find out what Ph.D. is then appears to have gone amiss. Yet, the fact that the term Ph.D. does not match well the current, practical meaning is a possible source of confusion itself. After such investigation, one feels that universities ought to provide some further definition of Ph.D., there must be some general definition that describes the real meaning, or core, that makes a degree be called Ph.D. And that is what I’ll try to find out.
Although at first glance the old philosophers might not appear very similar to the academic staff of today, I believe strolling around, having meetings and coffee breaks was just as important part of being a philosopher back in the days as it is for a modern professor.
I bet that although we have the impression that the Greek heroes were spending all of their time on mortal discussions in public fora, spiced with a bit of homoerotic activities, most of the time they were just hanging out and chatting up big shots for continued funding.