> I'd prefer something like "The purpose of PhD programs is to advance the field".
If you read Wikipedia under 'Doctor of Philosophy', you will find that a Ph.D. was once more of a prestigious title you got after doing the scholarship:
"The first higher doctorate in the modern sense was Durham University's DSc, introduced in 1882. This was soon followed by other universities, including the University of Cambridge establishing its ScD in the same year and the University of London transforming its DSc into a research degree in 1885. These were, however, very advanced degrees, rather than research-training degrees at the PhD level—Harold Jeffreys said that getting a Cambridge ScD was "more or less equivalent to being proposed for the Royal Society."
It is still possible to get a doctorate in this manner. Please see wikipedia under 'Doctor of Philosophy by publication'.
"A Doctor of Philosophy by publication (also known as a Ph.D. by Published Work, PhD by portfolio or Ph.D. under Special Regulation) is a manner of awarding a Ph.D. degree offered by some universities in which a series of articles usually with a common theme are published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals to meet the requirements for the degree, in lieu of presentation of a final dissertation. Many PhD by Publication programs require the submission of a formal thesis and a viva voce."
It is offered in several countries in Europe. The wikipedia entry is incomplete: it is not just offered in the UK.
Furthermore, it is relatively common to get advanced degrees from well known universities (e.g., Harvard) without having an undergraduate degree.
News agencies worldwide suppressed the 'lab leak' theory. Facebook actively censored it. Fact checkers 'disproved it'. Leading scientists called it a conspiracy theory.
It is not the first time that this has happened. We were told that Irak had weapons of mass destruction. It was announced at the United Nations. All mainstream news agencies reported it.
For many, many years, the US was 'winning the war' in Vietnam. All news agencies agreed. The US was not winning.
The mere fact that many, even most, people agree with something does not make it true.
The original claim was "the overwhelming majority of pressure to cancel books and academics is directed at the left by the right, regardless of what gets column inches and think-pieces."
Many would say that the overwhelming majority of the academy is left of center. This makes it intuitive that if there is censorship of academics, then the recipients of the censorship would be people left of center. But I do not think it follows that the censors are on the right.
I argue that most of the censorship on campus, be it people being uninvited or forced to resigned, comes from the academy itself. It is true that, quite possibly, the vast majority of the people being censored are on the left, but I think it is also true that the vast majority of the people censoring are also on the left.
The right simply occupies very little room in the academy. It mostly exists outside of the academy.
This is not to say that people on the right (mostly from outside of the academy) do not come in with censorious intentions... but my impression is that most universities are very well protected against external interventions. It is simply not the case that a business leader or a radio show host can easily censor a professor on campus.
So if we are thinking about, say, college professors, I would say that we are mostly dealing with a left-left censorship.
If you read Wikipedia under 'Doctor of Philosophy', you will find that a Ph.D. was once more of a prestigious title you got after doing the scholarship:
"The first higher doctorate in the modern sense was Durham University's DSc, introduced in 1882. This was soon followed by other universities, including the University of Cambridge establishing its ScD in the same year and the University of London transforming its DSc into a research degree in 1885. These were, however, very advanced degrees, rather than research-training degrees at the PhD level—Harold Jeffreys said that getting a Cambridge ScD was "more or less equivalent to being proposed for the Royal Society."
It is still possible to get a doctorate in this manner. Please see wikipedia under 'Doctor of Philosophy by publication'.
"A Doctor of Philosophy by publication (also known as a Ph.D. by Published Work, PhD by portfolio or Ph.D. under Special Regulation) is a manner of awarding a Ph.D. degree offered by some universities in which a series of articles usually with a common theme are published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals to meet the requirements for the degree, in lieu of presentation of a final dissertation. Many PhD by Publication programs require the submission of a formal thesis and a viva voce."
It is offered in several countries in Europe. The wikipedia entry is incomplete: it is not just offered in the UK.
Furthermore, it is relatively common to get advanced degrees from well known universities (e.g., Harvard) without having an undergraduate degree.