The Ph.D. Octopus
The arrival of the Internet is not the first occasion on which academics and dilletantes have sparred over the value and importance of official accreditation — William James’s short essay on the “Ph.D. Octopus”:http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/octopus.html is always fun to help us rethink just how deep our cherished academic traditions may or may not stretch.
Although, to be fair, it’s not as interesting as him “taking nitrous and reading Hegel“:http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/jnitrous.html.
Alex Golub is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He studies mining and petroleum development in Papua New Guinea, as well as American culture in to the online game World of Warcraft. You can contact him at rex@savageminds.org
Well, it would be reassuring if more people had learned from this era. It just seems that we’ve gone so deeply in the direction of the unintended consequences which James describes that we might as well revolt and rebuild academia.
Oh, and we could have a less gender-specific version. Might even be more prudent about the way we describe “intelligence.” But academia’s due for a major revision.
Anyone interested?
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