The Ph.D. Octupus

This article was written over 100 years ago – consider its relevance today, with our increasing emphasis on paper qualifications………?

The Ph.D. Octopus
William James
Some years ago, we had at our Harvard Graduate School a very brilliant student of Philosophy, who, after leaving us and supporting himself by literary labor for three years, received an appointment to teach English Literature at a sister-institution of learning.

The governors of this institution, however, had no sooner communicated the appointment than they made the awful discovery that they had enrolled upon their staff a person who was unprovided with the Ph.D. degree.

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