[net.ai] Ph.D. and 'understanding'

Hoffman.es@XEROX.ARPA (07/27/84)

>From H. E. Booker in a piece in "Science" magazine (maybe around summer 1973):

"At the conclusion of an ideal undergraduate education, a man's brain
works well.  He is convinced, not that he knows everything or even that
he knows everything in a particular field, but that he stands a
reasonable chance of understanding anything that someone else has
already understood.  Any subject that he can look up in a book he feels
that he too can probably understand.  On the other hand, if he cannot
look it up in a book, he is uncertain what to do next.  This is where
graduate education comes in.  Unlike the recipient of a Bachelor's Degree,
the recipient of a Doctor's Degree should have a reasonable confidence in
his ability to face what is novel and to continue doing so throughout life."

--Rodney Hoffman