By the Right Honourable Reverend Dr. Mark L. Burkey, Esquire, Ph.D., M.A., BSBA, Etc.
On Dec. 11th Joseph Epstein wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled "Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D. (Jill Biden should think about dropping the honorific, which feels fraudulent, even comic)" As always, English is a dynamic language, and words change meaning over time. What most people don't know, is that Jill Biden's title of "Doctor" is the one that came first.
The Briefest Version:
The word "doctor" is derived from a Latin word meaning teacher. The real meaning attached to this term has fluctuated wildly through time- meaning everything from one of Jesus' Apostles, to a title awarded to career scholars later in their careers, to meaning literally nothing but an honorific people gave themselves (similar to "Reverend" or "Esquire" today). In my historically-justified opinion, the term Doctor should be reserved for people
1) holding the highest degree in their field of study, and
2) who not only are practitioners (or users) of knowledge, but people who actively do research to increase the knowledge available to humans.
Certainly, people who are neither hold the highest degree, and also are not learned scholars, should never be called "Doctor".
Since Jill Biden has an ED.D., which is the highest degree in education, but is not really a research degree, she meets one of these two criteria. However, most physicians ("Medical Doctors") also only meet one of these two criteria. If you call your physician "Doctor", then you should also probably do the same for Jill Biden. However, in modern times I prefer to do away with all of these archaic and vague honorifics that are more often than not misused, and appropriated by people who don't deserve them.
The Longer Version:
Here, during these days where anything is a possible topic where political opinion is somehow relevant to facts... After 11 years in college I earned a doctorate (and 3 undergraduate degrees, 1 MA degree), but not so I can force people to call me "Doctor". Well, unless I run into one of those people who insist that I call them "Doctor". Honestly to me, honorifics of all types are passe' and mean less and less as more and more people add random honorifics and letters before and after their names. Just as "Colonel Sanders" was not a real Colonel, and anyone can add "Revered" to the front of their name or "Esquire" after it, and I saw a resume' recently where someone added so many random letters after their name, that the detritus was long than the actual name.
Though words change meaning over time, it is often instructive to look at word origins when we are unclear about meaning. The word "doctor" comes from the Latin docēre, which means "to teach". If we go way back, docendi meaning "teacher" was used to refer to early church leaders and teachers, including the Apostles themselves. Universities were originally created by, and controlled by church authorities, so as universities became more independent from the church, this original title docendi was lowered in prestige and required qualifications below the degrees called "Magister" and "Doctorate". Originally, the three main fields of study in universities were of course theology, along with law and medicine. People who studied anything outside these fields were called "philosophers" meaning "people who love wisdom", which is why we call a doctorate in the vast majority of fields a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy).
The title “Doctor” was created during the renaissance in the 1300's to describe the highest level of learning in a field- the most eminent scholars, and usually awarded to people who were middle-aged. It was not just a title given to people after studying in the classroom, but reflected a life dedicated to teaching and learning. This term was reserved for the most respected scholars.
However, later on things reversed themselves- since the title "Doctor" was not protected by any law, by the 1800's quacks and frauds called themselves "Doctor" so often, that the term actually fell out of favor among those with real Doctorate degrees- and instead people started writing their qualifications after their names (e.g., Mark L. Burkey, Ph.D.).
Also, the level of training of physicians began a race to the bottom until it became a joke. People with little to no training who earlier called themselves surgeons or apothecaries (pharmacists) now promoted themselves to being called "physicians" and "doctors". In the 18th century, serious students of medicine could earn both a bachelors and a doctoral degree in medicine, even though the bachelors degree only took one year to get. So many people studying medicine simply left after one year and still called themselves "doctor" that in 1789 the best medical college in America set the standard by eliminating the bachelors degree entirely, forcing people to get an M.D. before they got any certification in medicine.
While this sounds promising, at the same time and making the only entrance requirement to begin studying for a medical "doctorate" was that students had to take one course in "natural and experimental philosophy" (Starr, p. 43). In 1789 in the US the term "Doctorate" at the leading medical school was used for what was much less than a bachelor degree- basically requiring 1 year of courses and 3 years as an apprentice. Now, on to Lawyers...
A JD is not a real doctorate degree, which technically should a) involve original research, and b) be the highest degree in a field. In the US, a J.D. is the first degree someone can earn in law, takes only 2-3 years, requires no research, and the prerequisite is only a bachelors degree. In every other field we call this kind of degree a "masters" degree (A Master of Law is the highest law degree- why law chose to get it backwards, I do not know). Additionally, many argue that an M.D. is not a true doctorate degree either- in 17th century Scotland, physicians decided to steal the term "Doctor" as a title, just as lawyers decided to call themselves "Esquire" (servant of a knight) in the US. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but a masters degree by any other name doesn't make it a doctorate.
