Ph.D. at Bat

When a scholar has finished mining his Ph.D. from a library or laboratory, he is likely to be repaid almost as scantily in prestige as he is in pork chops. In fact, he is lucky if he is not stereotyped as "a bumbling, woolly-minded theorist, somewhat timid, thoroughly impractical, unfit for any other occupation." So says Harold Seymour, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Manhattan's Finch College, who deplores the low self-esteem of the scholars of high degree. His remedy, proposed in the Educational Record: henceforth, all Ph.D.s should insist that they be addressed as "Doctor." Writes Dr. Seymour: "The title 'Doctor' commands special respect among laymen, and by failing to use it, the professor is casting away a ready means of placing the public in a respectful posture and consequently a more receptive mood."

Dr. Seymour does not define the posture that the public should assume before doctors of philosophy, but implies that it should be at least as deferential as the one employed before doctors of medicine. Although the title "has come to be equated with medical practitioner," he continues, "by ancient definition, 'doctor' means one sufficiently skilled in any branch of knowledge to teach it." Dr. Seymour acknowledges that there are some weak programs leading to Ph.D.s (a onetime Brooklyn Dodger bat boy, he got his from Cornell for a history of baseball). But at its best, he writes, "the character of the work entailed in obtaining the Ph.D. from a first-class university calls forth intellectual powers of a higher order than does that involving the M.D. Although the latter is usually a product of exacting requirements, the work leading to it places a premium on memory ... In contrast, the Ph.D. requires the candidate to make a significant contribution to the store of knowledge."

But Ph.D.s "persist in their perverse modesty and deliberately hide the fact that they are doctors." Even worse, "they help demean their profession further by lending themselves to the widespread practice ... of handing out honorary doctor's degrees . . . like lollipops." Seymour's recommendation: replacing honorary doctorates with O.C.C. (Outstanding Citizen of the Community) degrees, so that recipients cannot masquerade as hand-carved Ph.D.s. Whatever happens, it is probable that Ph.D.s will, willy-nilly, go on passing as ordinary mortals. Byline on the Educational Record piece: plain "Harold Seymour."

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