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> i have never (ever) seen someone with an honorary doctorate actually call themselves doctor. You're right that this is abnormal in American academic culture

by _Nat_ 7y ago

> i have never (ever) seen someone with an honorary doctorate actually call themselves doctor. You're right that this is abnormal in American academic culture [1]. Apparently German culture would afford him the title "Dr. h.c.", where the "h.c." qualifier clarifies that it's an honorary degree. To be fair, [his Wikipedia page][2] seems to suggest that he's done enough work to have potentially earned a real PhD, had he been enrolled in a PhD program. Plus we're often loose with the "Dr." title anyway. For example, we'll often call a college-level instructor "Dr." even if they don't actually have a doctorate. All that said, it's still a tad less-than-dignified. I mean, it does have a hint of puffery behind it for someone whose work would seem to otherwise stand on its own. Plus a PhD is an early honor; for example, we don't bother saying Dr. Albert Einstein because Einstein's later accomplishments were so much greater than merely earning a PhD that the title seems more like an understatement than an honor. So, it's a bit weird for an older guy who doesn't have an earned PhD to use the "Dr." title, given that it's a bit of a stretch and almost feels like he's leaning on it whereas other famous names don't. Not really a big deal, just kinda neat to examine. [1]: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/72504/ https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/72504/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman#Selected_publications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman#Selected_publ...

jcranmer 7y ago
> To be fair, [his Wikipedia page][2] seems to suggest that he's done enough work to have potentially earned a real PhD, had he been enrolled in a PhD program. I see nothing to suggest that. A PhD is fundamentally about doing research to push the boundaries of knowledge. He may be responsible for an impressive amount of software, but replicating what already exists (most of the GNU tools were about rewriting the UNIX utilities from scratch) doesn't qualify a whit towards a PhD.
- _Nat_ 7y ago
  Looking at his biography on Wikipedia, it seems that he: 1. Earned a BS in Physics from Harvard with a near-perfect GPA. 2. Got into a PhD in Physics program. 3. Dropped out of the Physics program to pursue a non-degree-track research program in AI. 4. Published stuff and gave talks. His work around that time sounds like what a typical grad student would be doing, i.e. performing research as a research assistant to a principal investigator: > While working (starting in 1975) as a research assistant at MIT under Gerry Sussman,[13] Stallman published a paper (with Sussman) in 1977 on an AI truth maintenance system, called dependency-directed backtracking.[17] This paper was an early work on the problem of intelligent backtracking in constraint satisfaction problems. As of 2009, the technique Stallman and Sussman introduced is still the most general and powerful form of intelligent backtracking.[18] The technique of constraint recording, wherein partial results of a search are recorded for later reuse, was also introduced in this paper.[18] Without looking into precisely what he did, that sounds like the sorta thing someone could type up as a dissertation and defend to earn a PhD.

by _Nat_ 7y ago

jcranmer 7y ago

> To be fair, [his Wikipedia page][2] seems to suggest that he's done enough work to have potentially earned a real PhD, had he been enrolled in a PhD program. I see nothing to suggest that. A PhD is fundamentally about doing research to push the boundaries of knowledge. He may be responsible for an impressive amount of software, but replicating what already exists (most of the GNU tools were about rewriting the UNIX utilities from scratch) doesn't qualify a whit towards a PhD.

_Nat_ 7y ago
Looking at his biography on Wikipedia, it seems that he: 1. Earned a BS in Physics from Harvard with a near-perfect GPA. 2. Got into a PhD in Physics program. 3. Dropped out of the Physics program to pursue a non-degree-track research program in AI. 4. Published stuff and gave talks. His work around that time sounds like what a typical grad student would be doing, i.e. performing research as a research assistant to a principal investigator: > While working (starting in 1975) as a research assistant at MIT under Gerry Sussman,[13] Stallman published a paper (with Sussman) in 1977 on an AI truth maintenance system, called dependency-directed backtracking.[17] This paper was an early work on the problem of intelligent backtracking in constraint satisfaction problems. As of 2009, the technique Stallman and Sussman introduced is still the most general and powerful form of intelligent backtracking.[18] The technique of constraint recording, wherein partial results of a search are recorded for later reuse, was also introduced in this paper.[18] Without looking into precisely what he did, that sounds like the sorta thing someone could type up as a dissertation and defend to earn a PhD.