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Letter: Don't be fooled by Ph.D. fraud
Do you ever listen to the NPR radio show "Ask Doctor Science"? It’s a 5-minute comedy featuring "Doctor Science: he knows more than You do!" "That’s right: I have a Master’s Degree - in SCIENCE!!"
Reading a recent letter to the Editor, I had a flashback to the Doctor Science radio program: an individual wrote in telling us all of his opinions about taxes, wolves, the United Nations and unfair trade practices. Great, we’re all entitled to our opinions, but he then sighed off by including the "PhD" after his name. I was really impressed, since he obviously knows more than I do (right, Doctor Science??). But when I "Googled" his name, imagine my surprise to find out that his PhD was in plant science! So much for his expertise in trade, politics, wolves and taxes! He’s just like me another guy with an opinion about a lot of things that I have little or no expertise in. I do have a BS in Forestry (BSF), but when I’m writing about my small herd of Angus cattle, the BSF is irrelevant. Would my cattle knowledge be any better if I had a PhD in Forestry?
So, before you buy into someone’s opinion just because they flash a PhD before your eyes, look deeper and find out where they’re really coming from: facts or opinions.
Dick Mangan,
Missoula, Mont.
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JM wrote on Jan 9, 2008 2:39 PM:
A PhD in a related field might afford some relevant experience. Generally, anyone with a science PhD (or math, urban planning, etc) will have taken a bunch of statistics courses that enable them to scrutinize numbers and stats behind certain issues. Anyone with advanced science/math/logic training also is experienced in looking past flawed arguments.
That being said, you're absolutely right that unless someone is bona-fide expert in the field in which they're commenting, their PhD merely makes them a more educated novice. That still trumps idiotic novices, but doesn't make them an expert.
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