Who’s a master? • gary e. davis • berkeley


	Project	a philological sense of Our evolving

	Who’s a master? gary e. davis	September 26, 2024

I’m amused by normal academic categories of accomplishment. The “bachelor” of arts or sciences, relative to a given specialist domain (a ‘major”), is supposed to have an admirable degree of independence or autonomy relative to the domain. But that’s rare. There are especially-talented persons, of course, but the bachelors are many, while the exemplarity (“magna,” “summa”) is rare.

We might expect that the “Master’s” degree shows reliable autonomy in its domain (which the bachelor was supposed to show), but a Master’s degree seldom shows notable masterfulness. (You don’t get a master teacher by way of a Master’s degree.)

Funny is the “doctor of philosophy” in a standard domain, which certifies a level of mastery that is licenseed to profess (in an “Assistant” capacity). But in what sense is one thereby a “doctor” of anything? One is a master, presumably (at last), due to an advanced course sequence, competancy exams covering standard areas, and a monograph-sized research project. But a doctor?

Everybody on a university faculty is a “Doctor of Philosophy” in some domain. This echoes a tradition of regarding “philosophy” as love of sophistication, before Philosophy became “queen of the sciences,” then lost that exemplarity to scien-
tific dreams of the “Unity of Science” which has no need of philosophers. (You won’t find leading scientists much interested in philosophy of science.)

There’s a classical relationship between being a doctor and teaching—enlightening and healing, or at least caring to respond to need.

But the exemplary learner (talented student) isn’t a person in need. S/He is a person desiring to learn, thus “needing” masterful teaching because they want singular advancement (higher individuation).

Any “doctor” is a care specialist, of course. Good teaching exemplifies student-centered care, rather than topic-dominated lecturing. Presentation is tailored as
an exemplary path (for a diversity of student backgrounds) of evincive under-
standing which enables higher competence, values, and knowledge. The course is a supposedly exemplary way toward, ideally, noteable mastery.

But every university student knows that someone professing as a “Professor” is commonly not a masterful teacher.

Indeed, if one has been a member of an academic department, they know that professors commonly want to reduce their teaching “load.” Let grad students instruct. Commonly, a professor wants time away from the classroom. Being a master teacher is no path to tenure.

There’s commonly a syndrome of boredom in academic teaching. The calling (if there ever was one) has commonly become mere employment—commonly, these days, without job security—in a world where tenure (increasingly rare) relieves one from needing to do more publishing.

And much academic publishing is not exemplary of scholarly or discursive en-
gagement. Much of it is trivial (or hermetic). It’s about the “peer reviewed” job advancement (guild security), often with simulacral regard for scholarly or discursive exemplarity. Administrators need to fill staffing levels, relative to income-generating admissions.

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