X-Message-Number: 15763 Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 02:36:06 -0500 From: <> Subject: academic rank of professor is not necessary to be professor I'm trying not to be picky here, but as the subject has been brought up 3 times recently that i know of (twice here on cryonet, and once by e-mail), i beg everybody's indulgence for me to explain why i use `Professor Ettinger' to refer to our friend. According to my dictionary (Digital Webster), definition 2b, a professor is `a teacher at a university, college, or sometimes secondary school'. Definition 2a is `a faculty member of the highest academic rank at an institution of higher education'. So in the sense of definition 2b, i can properly refer to Ettinger as professor---after all, i believe he taught at Highland Park College for a few decades, and then retired. I believe i can also refer to him as professor in the sense of 2a, although not perhaps as the author of the definition intended. I believe from what Paul W posted earlier (Message 15674), that, in fact, the highest rank at Ettinger's school was not `professor', but that nevertheless Ettinger attained that highest rank, whatever it was. That would seem to make him a `2a' professor anyway (i.e., he had attained the `highest rank' at his institution). I'm also sure that if his school were here in California, they would call some of their faculty professor, and he'd be one of them. I'd like to pay him a little respect, and luckily my dictionary will allow it. [And this of course is all based on American usage. As i understand it, the British system, at least in the old days, had only one professor per department---someone with the rank of lecturer at a British school might be equivalent to a professor at an American school.] Now, a more substantive point, despite my respect for Ettinger, i agree (with Ettinger, Jeff G, and probably everybody else here): we don't want to argue from authority; we want to evaluate important arguments based on their contents. As Ettinger is fond of saying, the experts will vote you into the grave. One other point: like everybody else here, i also have respect for our other leaders and exemplary figures such as Paul W (for his work trying to get Prometheus going, and INC) and Saul Kent, and lots of others. I think Saul in particular was very wise in saying that if no organization or research outfit is good enough, then go out and start your own. And he followed his own advice by funding 21CM. There are lots of good examples for us to follow or help out. dan Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15763