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The phrase, "I have enough authority to learn whatever I want to learn outside the framework of academia," strikes me in an odd way. I'm inclined to say that n

The phrase, "I have enough authority to learn whatever I want to learn outside the framework of academia," strikes me in an odd way. I'm inclined to say that no literate person needs the academic framework to learn anything for which they have the underpinnings; that is to say, as long as they start close enough to the beginning, they can learn anything they please — especially if they're willing to seek out expert assistance as needed, like you. What is it about your Ph.D experience that makes you feel more able to learn authoritatively? I think I'm missing something there.

steev 8y ago
I'm not the OP, but I can say that pursuing anything where you have to spend large amounts of time learning on your own to achieve a deep understanding of a topic gives you valuable learning skills. I find people from these paths typically learn topics more quickly and with a better understanding than someone finishing their undergrad degree. Maybe that is what OP was getting at.
scarecrowbob 8y ago
Well, to be frank-- you're right. To some extent we are all the arbiters of what constitutes satisfactory learning. My experience of grad school was that it aimed to modify how I learned. To a certain extent, newly minted PhDs are still only experts in the barest sense, but getting a PhD is the point at which people become more-or-less "on their own" as scholars... when they publish work, it's no longer "student" work, it is work that is put out by a person who has passed a qualifying exam and defended their ideas against a panel of peers. This is a process of how new academically-blessed authors are created: it's a process of authorization. There's a certain amount of authority that this conveys to say "I've learned this stuff, here's what I found." That "authority" only exists within the framework of academia, and we are all free folks who have that authority from birth. So yeah, you're right that we have this authority in general from birth. But to a certain extent, gaining that authority in that context is the process of pursuing a PhD, and once you have that I am not seeing what there is to gain even within that context. Does that clarify what I am wondering?
- JasonFruit 8y ago
  That very much clarified your intent in using the word authority.

steev 8y ago

I'm not the OP, but I can say that pursuing anything where you have to spend large amounts of time learning on your own to achieve a deep understanding of a topic gives you valuable learning skills. I find people from these paths typically learn topics more quickly and with a better understanding than someone finishing their undergrad degree. Maybe that is what OP was getting at.

scarecrowbob 8y ago

Well, to be frank-- you're right. To some extent we are all the arbiters of what constitutes satisfactory learning. My experience of grad school was that it aimed to modify how I learned. To a certain extent, newly minted PhDs are still only experts in the barest sense, but getting a PhD is the point at which people become more-or-less "on their own" as scholars... when they publish work, it's no longer "student" work, it is work that is put out by a person who has passed a qualifying exam and defended their ideas against a panel of peers. This is a process of how new academically-blessed authors are created: it's a process of authorization. There's a certain amount of authority that this conveys to say "I've learned this stuff, here's what I found." That "authority" only exists within the framework of academia, and we are all free folks who have that authority from birth. So yeah, you're right that we have this authority in general from birth. But to a certain extent, gaining that authority in that context is the process of pursuing a PhD, and once you have that I am not seeing what there is to gain even within that context. Does that clarify what I am wondering?

JasonFruit 8y ago
That very much clarified your intent in using the word authority.