A doctorate is 80,000 to 100,000 theses words that made an original and
significant contribution to human knowledge. Arts / humanities include
subjects such as literature, classics, history, politics, philosophy,
religion, visual arts, performing arts, and gender studies. I just finished
a doctorate in humanities department at an Australian university. Australia
academia is a small world if because of my career I won t give details that
could identify me.
Whether or not do a PhD is a choice you must make for yourself. It's not
for me to say that no one should ever do a PhD in the humanities. Even I
admit that it is not a waste of time, and if that's what you really want to
do then go for it. These disciplines need the right people to balance the
scales.
What I can say is that I personally regret a doctorate in humanities. If I
had to do a PhD again, I would choose a STEM (science, technology,
engineering, mathematics) field, but I do not think I would do a doctorate
in any subject. Life is too short. Anyway, here are ten reasons not to do a
PhD in the humanities.
1. You learn the minimum skills
After more than ten years at the university, my advice to new students is
to focus on learning skills rather than content. You will forget most
content that you learn, even if you do not, it is not useful. What you need
for work and life skills such as writing, mathematics and coding.
Have you ever noticed that the subjects in the humanities third grade have
little or no subjects or prerequisite skills? Indeed, the only real
difference between the first year and third year of humanities subjects is
the third year in subjects over weekly readings pages (that most students
do not read anyway) and more test.
You will never see one on the third year in a STEM department without
preconditions because students STEM learn skills like math and coding that
take advantage of prior knowledge that the time you are in the last years
of your degree you do things you could not have done in the first year. You
hope that all university degrees would work like this, but you'd be wrong.
Lack of skills taught in the humanities departments continues in the
doctorate. Of course, you develop skills in writing, research, critical
thinking and self-motivation, but unfortunately these are the skills that
are both common and difficult to quantify job applications. For example,
even the undergraduates in STEM can write enough for most office jobs while
for me their math and coding looks like a foreign language.
2. Humanities fields are not academic rigor
Humanities subjects are very subjective, it is often limited to
researchers, and most of the arguments can not really be proved or
disproved. Humanities is all about plausible arguments. The doctoral thesis
average humanities is a house of cards including plausible but unprovable
arguments built on plausible but unprovable arguments. One of the basic
arguments may well be wrong as everything else invalid, but it does not
matter because no one will ever be able to prove it.
Humanities PhDs often involve laughably broad topics. It is not uncommon
for the SSH research to cover more countries and / or centuries. The only
way to cover these subjects is large with a superficial analysis, little
evidence and arguments are at best plausible but unprovable. I think most
human writing science is better thought of as fiction based on reality.
3. No job
This one is simple; humanities departments are pumping PhDs, but there are
very few jobs in academia and hold a doctorate in humanities are not
particularly helpful in other areas. In my department, there were about 50
PhD students and two postdoctoral positions. It is mathematical even a
humanities student can do: 1 job for 25 students.
4. The high opportunity costs
The PhD lasts more than four years of full-time work, plus 4+ years of
undergraduate studies and distinctions that precedes it. That's a lot of
time, effort, lost wages and loss of career progression. Think of all the
travel or hobbies that you could do with that time and money. In four
years, you could even do something useful like a trade, an engineering
degree or a hitch in the Army.
5. Mental illness
Hold a long and stressful events doctorate living in poverty with minimal
incentives or rewards. No surprise then that doctoral students have much
higher rates of mental illness than the general population.
6. Too many feminists
Humanities departments are full of feminists. These are not your garden
variety "women should be equal" feminists. These are men who hate who
interpret everything through the lens of a "patriarchal oppressive."
Their way of raging confirmation bias than straight white man you say can
and will be twisted against you. You are if you like it or not privileged
unconsciously sexist and potentially violent ,. Most men in the departments
of arts are falling over themselves to prove they are just as feminist and
hating men and women.
7. incestuous students
humanities doctoral students are very incestuous with several short and
long-term relationships education within most groups. These people are like
hamsters crawling all over each other. Cheating is commonplace. humanities
doctoral students for most women it may seem like a dream scenario for many
men, but believe me, it's a trap! Women love drama. Do not shit where you
eat and do not put your penis or any other part of your anatomy crazy close.
8. Too crazy leftists
Arts departments are full of lefties. Research topics chosen by most of
these leftists are equal parts boring and unimportant. You are more likely
to see research on the effects of WWII on gay Aboriginal women in Australia
you must see a thesis on the real battles that decided the course of human
history.
Worryingly, this leftism has taken some of the forms of a dogmatic
religion. An example in Australia is called "Acknowledge the country." At
the beginning of any person conversation or workshop must stand up and
say, "I want to stress that this meeting is held on the traditional lands
of indigenous peoples, we pay respect to past old [appropriate tribal
group] and present and celebrate as the oldest continuous culture on
earth. " All human cultures have common ancestors, so that all cultures are
equally old. Aim this at your own risk.
9. The competitiveness and ego
Let's be honest, most people doctorate mainly for the status of being able
to put Dr. in front of their name. Most also like the idea of becoming a
psuedo academic celebrity in their field and their name and picture stamped
on the book covers. Academia is Hollywood for ugly people who love to read.
They do not really benefit their research and yet they are very competitive
on who can publish articles in most of the top newspapers, giving papers at
the conference, and end their fastest thesis. Think of a workplace full of
competitive narcissistic feminist women jobs they hate to pay terrible and
knowing that, after four years 96% of them will be fired.
10. Publishing for itself
That's what they make you read in hell.
University research in humanities is almost universally unread. Indeed,
humanities scholars choose subjects boring and irrelevant and because the
publication is mainly as a way to get and keep jobs as academics rather
because the author has something important or useful to say.
Conclusion
If I sound a little bitter, it's because I am. My PhD was a horrible event
and I have not much to show for it. But I take full responsibility for my
choices and # 8212; nobody had a gun to his head. If I'm honest, humanities
academics was the only thing I was good and earning a doctorate was a way
for me to patch my low self-esteem.
On the positive side, I always thought I had the opportunity to do a PhD
and I am not dying to ask. The problem is that I now looked behind the
curtain and realized these disciplines are mostly bullshit. If this is
something you want to do then go ahead, but do your research and get
started with an assessment of the traps. Do not be afraid to leave if
you're miserable. Sometimes quitting takes more courage to continue.
Read more: How Liberal Arts Hurts Our Economy
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