Why do some scientists refer to themselves as doctors?

Question

When they've never been to medical school? Isn't that illegal?

Answer 1

You can get an advanced degree in most subjects. The PhD degree is a doctorate. Then they can use the doctor term, nothing to do with a medical degree. A lawyer an have a JD which is a doctorate in jurisprudence. A minister can have a DD which is a doctor of divinity. Some medical doctors have a DO, a doctorate in osteopathy other doctors have an MD or medical doctor.

Answer 2

Oikos is exactly right. 'Doctor' from the Latin means 'teacher', not 'physician'. The real doctors are the ones with a PhD. Medical doctors appropriated the title about a hundred years ago to make themselves sound more educated than they were at the time. Today medical doctors have a lot more training than they used to, but they have still not done any original work, which was the original requirement for a doctorate.

Answer 3

a medical doctor is an MD



a scientist is a PhD, he has Doctorate of Philosophy.



The real question is why scientists, people who have completely explored, learned and mastered their fields, allow MDs to use the term "doctor" when all they have done is select a medical specialty and narrowly explored it for a brief time in school before dropping out and entering the working world.



Medical doctors are the equivalent of the labor class, sweating away in factories, cutting and sewing, working with their hands for a salary.



Scientists are the researchers and educators, being paid to think and teach and keep on learning, in an academic or occasionly a laboratory setting, achieving grants and Awards, rather than toiling for a paycheck

Answer 4

You have it backwards. The original doctorate was the Ph. D. The barber-surgeons appropriated the title to make themselves sound more educated and important, just as people in other fields have since done the same. You can be a dentist (DMD or DDS), lawyer (JD), cleric (DD), Pharmacist or related field (Pharm. D.), or any one of a number of other fields with earned or honorary doctorates. I wish physicians would refer to themselves as such, so I wouldn't have to keep explaining that I have the "real" doctorate.

Answer 5

well after a Bachlors degree a person goes for master thn he goes fr Phd degree after completing phD a a person can prefix Dr before his/her name...these however are scientists the one undergoing medical studies is yur regular doctor

Answer 6

I am not sure how this all works or if i am even saying it right in higher education you get a doctorate thus you can call yourself a doctor i worked for a company the owner was a Doctor of science

Answer 7

Or, as Randy Pausch's (PhD Computer Science) mother would say, "This is my son. He's a Doctor, but not the kind that helps people."

Answer 8

are you serious?

it means they have a doctorate in what they were studying. dr. isnt just medical. doctorate in psychology, doctorate in earth science. in gjost buster, bill murray says, " yes, i'm dr. veinkman." then red beard says, "what exactly are you a doctor of?" its the highest on the totem pole of what someone is studying.

Answer 9

There are two types of doctors, the smart kind (PhD) and the rich kind (MD).