Timeline for May I call Samuel Johnson a PhD?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
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| Mar 27, 2018 at 20:46 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackAcademia/status/978735031194710016 | ||
| Mar 19, 2018 at 19:59 | comment | added | Andrew is gone | @paulgarrett fwiw, the ODNB seems to suggest that "Dr Johnson" was popularised after he was awarded the LLD. That's not to say it was solely because of the doctorate, but it certainly wasn't entirely independent of it. | |
| Mar 19, 2018 at 11:30 | comment | added | erstwhile editor | Dr Routh (1755-1854), of "verify your references" fame, is lightly later but always Dr Routh. I think in University circles it was absolutely standard to call holders of doctorates "Doctor". And even in London, see Pepys' diary and John Evelyn's. | |
| Mar 19, 2018 at 11:05 | comment | added | paul garrett | @aparente001, I really don't have an authoritative answer to any of your comment-questions... but I do not recall any other historical figure of that time being chronically referred to as "Doctor..." as was Johnson, and certainly some of them had passed the bar, and so on. Dunno, but Johnson seems to be singular in always being referred to in that fashion. | |
| Mar 19, 2018 at 10:07 | history | edited | Wrzlprmft♦ |
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| Mar 19, 2018 at 2:45 | comment | added | aparente001 | @paulgarrett - Was it unusual for someone erudite with no doctorate to be called "doctor"? Was it customary to call someone with a doctorate "doctor"? How rare was it to earn a doctorate (I mean, not in the way Johnson did)? | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 18:31 | comment | added | Nat | Related: "If I receive an “honorary doctorate” from a reputable university, would it be wrong to refer to myself as “doctor”?". | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 18:26 | history | edited | Nat | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 18, 2018 at 17:27 | comment | added | paul garrett | My impression is that calling him "Dr. Johnson" was based on his erudition, rather than degrees. (For that matter, the degree system was not much like the modern one at that time!) | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 16:55 | review | Close votes | |||
| Mar 19, 2018 at 12:06 | |||||
| Mar 18, 2018 at 15:30 | answer | added | Andrew is gone | timeline score: 26 | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 15:29 | answer | added | erstwhile editor | timeline score: 34 | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 15:24 | comment | added | erstwhile editor | He was an LL.D. of TCD. There are no Oxford PhD's they are D.Phil. s. But there were none in Dr Johnson's day. Was he a DCL of Oxford? | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 15:02 | comment | added | Discrete lizard | I'd say calling an Honorary doctorate a PhD is confusing at best, but there may be conventions of which I'm unaware. | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 14:59 | history | asked | aparente001 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |