A doctorate was originally a church-approved licence to teach
Doctor means teacher in Latin, and the first doctorates were exactly that: permission to lecture at a medieval university. The church controlled who got one, charging fees and demanding oaths, until a pope handed the right to the University of Paris in 1213. The PhD's philosophy has little to do with philosophy.
A doctorate is a postgraduate degree descended from the licentia docendi, the licence to teach. The word doctor first applied in the early church to the Apostles, Church Fathers and other authorities who taught and interpreted scripture. The Catholic Church at first reserved the right to grant the licence, requiring a test, an oath of allegiance and a fee, though the Third Lateran Council of 1179 guaranteed essentially free access to capable applicants. According to Keith Allan Noble, the University of Paris awarded the first doctoral degree around 1150.
Universities gradually pulled away from church control. After the pope granted Paris the right in 1213, its licence became valid everywhere. The bachelor's degree shrank into a stepping stone towards the master's and the doctorate, which became the accepted teaching qualifications. Doctoral training resembled a guild apprenticeship: candidates studied seven years before admission to the guild of Masters of Arts, the same term as apprentices in other trades. Master and doctor once meant the same thing; only later did the doctorate rank higher.
Its origins are debated. George Makdisi argued that the ijazah, a certificate from early Islamic madrasahs, inspired the European doctorate, and Alfred Guillaume and Syed Farid al-Attas see a resemblance. Toby Huff and others reject the idea, and Devin J. Stewart points out that a single professor granted an ijazah whereas a university doctorate came from a corporate body.
The Doctor of Philosophy emerged in Germany in the 17th century, probably around 1652. Philosophy here carries its Greek sense, love of wisdom, because European universities once grouped history, mathematics and the natural sciences under a faculty of philosophy. In the early 19th century the degree was reintroduced as a research qualification, Dr. phil., at what became the Humboldt University of Berlin, with Germany adding separate doctorates for natural and political sciences. Today the PhD is the most common doctorate, and many universities also give honorary ones for notable contributions.
Source: Doctorate
