Anti-Climacus

As a general rule, I think conservatives tend to rely overly much on the Ph.D. as a credential of intelligence and authority. It is and remains mostly a bureaucratic hurdle, and the dissertation is usually the beginning of one's contribution to scholarship rather than a fully-formed work in its own right (the fields, to my knowledge, where this is less true also tend to be those that think of the dissertation less as a cumulative work than as a succession of articles). I tend to view the placement of ", Ph.D." after someone's name (or "Dr.") in public argumentation (as opposed to academic life, where norms can vary, and when in Rome) as a sign of insecurity.* I certainly think Newt Gingrich is an example of both of these. That being said, this is an example of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy if ever I've seen it.


*And is hardly only the provenance of conservatives, see the number of self-help books or dubious works of nonfiction that say are by "Dr. John Smith, Ph.D."