PhD (also Ph.D., PhD. etc.), or doctor of philosophy, written after the name, is the highest academic degree that can be earned by being a student at university and the title required for working as a (regular) scientist (nowadays more like soyentist). PhD is yet above master's degree and is earned through many years of hard and dedicated study especially focused on active publishing of original research that pushes the boundary of current human knowledge in a specific field. After earning master's degree, it normally takes around 4 additional years of study and research ended with a dissertation thesis and its defense to get a PhD, although there may exist deviations from this exact path. Despite being called doctor of philosophy, the title is awarded generally to scientists in practically any field such as mathematics, physics, psychology, chemistry etc., NOT just to those studying philosophy. It is a doctorate degree, so a holder of PhD is called a doctor (Dr.), just as those with other forms of doctorates such as medical doctorate or honorary doctorate; however PhD is the big doctorate, the kind of highest, most prestigious one. People with a PhD degree are considered the forefront experts, the smartest, most educated elite, as only about 1 to 2 % of population hold a PhD, though PhD is also often considered an overkill and an overqualification (there are many cases of people with PhD not mentioning it on their CVs because such a high education can actually be a disadvantage), and of course, as with everything under capitalism, PhDs became a thing of business and conformance, subject to corruption and degradation (there now even exist PhDs in astrology, gender studies etc.), at times even a meme. PhD isn't what it used to be -- in the past a scientist was someone wise with a generally wide knowledge and also usually good, moral character, while nowadays a PhD absolutely doesn't come with such guarantees -- today a PhD is simply a thinking machine, extremely specialized in some very, VERY narrow field such as studying the front leg of a subspecies of some prehistoric bug; besides this narrow specialization PhD knows absolutely nothing about anything else (in this they are similar to highly trained neural networks that perform superbly at one specific task like beating world chess championship but won't be able to add 3 plus 4). Yes, unless one is a minority or a woman, he still has to be somewhat smart and talented to obtain a PhD, but nowadays it's probably more about pouring an extreme amount of energy, slavery and conformance to the corrupt academic cults, so the prestige of the title comes for a pretty high price, one not worth paying. While the lower degrees demonstrate ability, PhD mostly demonstrates conformity, motivation and endurance added to this ability.
As for brief history: various titles of "doctor" have been around for very long time, but PhD in the sense of today's "research focused" degree has been established sometime in the 19th century in Germany.
Is there anything above PhD? Yes, there are such degrees, but they're not the same "kind of" degree (they are awarded for significant long time contributions for example) and they're not as internationally unified like PhDs. In Czechia for example there are further titles of "docent" (doc.) and then, at the very top, "profesor" (prof.), which is awarded by the president of the country. In UK there is a "higher doctorate" DSc considered above PhD. Post PhD achievements may rather involve various prizes, like the ultimate Nobel Prize or Fields Medal, or aiming for high citation counts or something, or even just hoarding various flex degrees, including honorary doctorates, more Master's degrees and even several PhDs (yes, some people actually have that), but that is actually a little ridiculous and people may laugh at it.
As of 2024 the PhD degree is a joke, you can no longer view it as a proof of anything but simply a strong desire to have a PhD -- it is possible to get PhD without being talented or smart, simply by showing high conformity, determination and willingness to do soyentific slavery. If one is rich it's probably possible to get the degree without even dedicating a lot of time and energy. There now exist PhDs in joke fields and from meme universities, there is literally a woman who got a PhD in dildo design. Other people get it in fields such as bodybuilder training or for studying cultural significance of Justin Bieber. There is a famous scandal around Bogdanoff brothers wherein two idiotic celebrity brothers, whose IQ can be immediately assessed just from their abomination appearance induced by hilarious plastic surgeries, received PhDs for literally meme-grade sci-fi theses filled with scientific buzzwords, just because they were famous (and this dates actually quite far back to around the year 2000). Further research of questionable PhDs suggest a conclusion that there are HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of fake/non-legit PhD degrees obtained from diploma mills for money or with scams like ghostwriting theses or plagiarism, especially in countries like China and Russia -- many are revoked and many go happily unnoticed. At this point academia is completely dead and its degrees and medals are just funny decorations marking those stupid enough to waste their lives with it.
Are PhDs smart? Well, obviously, probably yes, but also not necessarily and PhD is not needed to be ultra smart or educated, plus refer to the above: recent PhDs have practically no value. Compare the situation to military ranks for example, the question is then like asking: are soldiers with higher ranks more physically fit (or more accurate shooters or whatever)? It's not exactly the same, but sort of similar. Any professional soldier is without a doubt more physically fit than an average Joe from the street and there may even be a slight correlation of "physical fitness" with a higher rank, but making it from lieutenant to general is as much about strength of your arms as going from Master's degree to a PhD is about your IQ. Pushing the extra mile to becoming a general or a PhD may be more about the sheer desire to do so, about communication skills, collaboration, hard work and even luck. And without a doubt there will be tons of amateur sportsmen that would absolutely own a general in a 1v1 fight like there will be high school graduates with higher IQ than many PhDs -- it's actually likely that a general will be inferior in physical fitness to those who fight in the front lines because generals aren't supposed to fight but think and give orders, and similarly PhD professors are leaders and teachers to others, they may end up doing more paperwork/meetings and less "actual mental work" than the students they supervise, even if their name has to end up on their papers as one of the authors. Insofar as IQ is concerned, the averages are slightly higher for PhDs than Masters, though it depends on the field and university, and eventually only says that higher IQ makes it easier to get a PhD. Who would you bet on as the smarter guy: a holder of Master's degree in quantum mechanics from MIT or PhD in psychology from a no name Indian university? So basically: yes and no and it's complicated.
Should you get a PhD? The short answer is NO. Unless you live in the past -- as stated the sacrifice required is immense, to make it you should have a REAL GOOD reason, of which there aren't many -- perhaps if you REALLY strive to be a teacher at a university because you love to mentor a bunch of asswipes who are obliged to treat you like an authority or if for some twisted reason you want to spend your whole life in the corrupt toxic soyence environment trying to prove women are better than men and sucking capitalist dicks so that they throw you a bit of cash for you to buy a new microscope, then maybe. The thing is that focusing on PhD will take away a big chunk of energy you should be spending on actually good things, consider that instead of actually programming less retarded software you'll just have to do slavery and prostitution for your dissertation advisor, do bureaucracy, p-value hacking so you get published, make powerpoint presentations, marketing for your research, giving handjobs to sponsors, do bullshit research you dislike (because publish or perish), all while withstanding incredible amounts of stress and dodging depression. Really masters_degree is enough to give you all you need for a rich intellectual life and being able to do good things, and it won't suck the soul out of your body as much, but you don't even need that. On the best universities bachelor's is probably equal to average master's, but you don't even have to go study at all, self study is cool as well, although it's sadly true that without a teacher you probably won't reach your peak just like a sportsman won't get to the Olympics without a trainer -- but do you need it really? If you REALLY wanna be the smartass guy who others ought to call a doctor, in some countries you may get some kinda small doctorate after master's degree, usually just for an extra exam and paying some fee (e.g. RNDr, PHDr etc., details will depend on your country so check that out). { TFW just getting the EZ dentist degree so that you may call yourself a doctor :D ~drummyfish } Nowadays you can also just buy a honorary doctorate online, it's absolutely legal business, though you probably don't wanna support this kind of capitalist bullshit, you just pay them unholy money for a piece of paper. You really don't wanna get this low.
TODO
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