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On a separate note, I don't understand why socially we've come to associate one type of doctorate (usually an M.D.?), for a physician, as the only type of "Doct
by andrewmcwatters 6y ago
On a separate note, I don't understand why socially we've come to associate one type of doctorate (usually an M.D.?), for a physician, as the only type of "Doctor" when we're talking about a physician. I assume it's just a historical convention?
I have no skin in this game, but today it seems rather rude to not consider other doctors, "Doctors," but OK to consider just physicians, colloquially a "Doctor", a "Doctor."
If I had a Ph.D. you'd damn well be sure I wanted people to acknowledge my doctorate, even if it was in something else, such as mathematics, law, or education.
- underseacables 6y agoThere’s a lot of professions that desperately want to be seen as medical doctors, but they lack the training and education to do so. A lot of healthcare licensure is built around that ideal, but if you give someone an exclusive scope of practice, with lots of fancy titles, through a little mirror action they could make themselves appear as doctors. Probably the worst of this is the registered dietitians.
- ghaff 6y agoIt's all historical convention. My personal feeling is that it's perfectly understandable to highlight relevant research doctorates in a research/academic setting. Yes, it's a status thing but it's understandable. Otherwise? Eh. Why PhDs and certain other "doctorates" and not Masters and other post-undergraduate degrees that may (or may not) also involve substantial original research?
- usrusr 6y agoOf all the people who have lived in the centuries since the term doctor got established, a very large majority hasn't ever interacted with a doctor that wasn't of the medical kind. From this perspective any weirdness surrounding the term/terms becomes rather unsurprising.