What do you think of a comment like this? It’s interesting in a few ways. First, the notion of a “heavyweight philosopher.” If we’re talking status, broad recognition, and so on, I’m certainly not one of those.

The other remark is an interesting one, though. He says I have “some background in philosophy” but that I’m a psychologist. There may be some questionable credentialist assumptions here.

• Parfit only had an undergraduate degree

• Nietzsche had a degree in philology

• William James had a medical degree

It would be ridiculous to claim any of these people somehow are not philosophers merely in virtue of their lack of formal credentials. Incidentally, I have an MA in philosophy, and my psychology dissertation included members of the philosophy department and was itself interdisciplinary. I also publish in philosophy journals and do peer review for them. I’ve also served as a philosophy instructor.

You do not specifically need a PhD in philosophy to do philosophy or be a philosopher. Credentialist inflation has led the current academic climate to be one in which people are typically required to have a PhD to be admitted to a philosophy department, but doing philosophy or being a philosopher don’t require any formal degrees at all, any more than being a chef requires going to culinary school.