If you continue your studies, you will earn a Master's Degree in Arts (M.A.) or Sciences (M.S.). The highest degrees granted are the doctoral degrees (Ph.D.) in whatever discipline you are studying.

What do these degrees refer to? What do they mean? There is an old joke among college students, that the B.S. degree is a degree in 'BS' ('Bull Shit'). The acronym (a set of letters that stand for a word or phrase) 'BS' is American slang for being able to talk (or write) a lot about something without really saying anything at all (you are probably aware of this). The joke continues to say that the M.S. degree stands for 'more of the same" (that is, more BS) and that the Ph.D. stands for 'piled higher and deeper' (the BS, that is).

There is, once again, much truth in this sarcastic humor. In order to succeed at the college level, and after, one must be able to write and discuss any and all of the issues confronted.

As I have pointed out, this writing and speaking must be in the formal mode: the successful college student must write and speak a certain way in order to be accepted among the academics. After a while, this way of writing and speaking becomes second nature to the college student. It becomes a formula that the student follows, almost without thought. By the time the student graduates, he or she often feels that they could write about anything, even if they know nothing about it!

The truth lies somewhere in between.

While the "D" in Ph.D. stands for 'doctorate', the "Ph" stands for 'philosophy'. The highest degree in history for example, is called a Doctorate of Philosophy in History.

As noted earlier, the word 'Philosophy', in Latin, means "love of knowledge'. The original philosophers were lovers of knowledge (such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle). They studied and asked questions about all things and looked upon all of existence as their area of study.

It was not until much later in human history (almost two thousand years later, beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries) that the 'one tree of knowledge' began to divide into different 'branches'.

You need to know that academics think of knowledge as organized as follows:

There are three major branches of knowledge in Academia: the Natural Sciences, the Liberal Arts, and the Social Sciences.

What do these names mean? You will notice the word science in two of the categories. There is a reason for this, and it lies in the definition of 'truth'.

Remember when we discussed the definition of truth above? We defined a special kind of truth, which we called 'scientific truth'. In human history, scientific truth has led to all manner of inventions (technology) and consequent quality of life enhancements (improvements). The scientific method, the authority that determines scientific truth, has proven to be extremely valuable to human beings, wouldn't you say?

Even if you don't value what science has provided humankind, one cannot deny that scientific truth has given rise to all sorts of technology and machinery that have enabled human beings to feed, clothe and shelter themselves in ways never before imagined; and rather efficiently, as well. In fact, people think so much of science that they strive to achieve the same quality of exactness in the all of the 'truths' that they study.

Take the curious example of 'psychology' for example. In some colleges and universities, psychology is considered to be a social science and the institution grants a B.A. degree. In other institutions, 'psychology' is considered to be a natural science, and a B.S. degree is granted.

In this latter case (the B.S. degree) the institution seeks to raise the respect granted to the discipline of psychology by asserting a 'higher' standard of truth. They are saying that psychology is more of a science by grouping the study with the natural sciences. At this school, it is thought that the authority of the discipline is enhanced by classifying psychology this way.

Some people think that if you call something 'a science' then the results will be more widely believed and more readily accepted. Nevertheless, wherever an institution might locate the department of 'psychology', and whatever degree is granted, the actual body of knowledge is the same, or should be. Wouldn't you think?

The Natural Sciences got their name from what they study: nature. A student of physics studies "bodies in motion"; a student of biology studies 'living things' and a student of chemistry studies 'matter'.

The Liberal Arts got their name from history. The subjects contained herein are all purely creative endeavors: they are substantially ('to a large extent') products of the human mind. "Liberal" means "open minded" or "broad minded" or "free thinking".

In this use it is an historic term (a term from history) that at one time referred to individuals who were intellectual 'explorers' (exploring 'freedom of thought') at a time when intellectual exploration was severely limited, chiefly by institutions of faith (in Europe, the Catholic Church) but also by the political power structure of the time.

These courageous people were not bound by the restrictions of their times and thought about the world in different, 'new' ways. Giordano Bruno was one of these.

And so were Immanuel Kant and John Locke and David Hume (1711-1776), who believed that human knowledge was mostly a matter of habit and belief: we expect the sun to rise tomorrow, because it always has, but we have nothing but our faith to rely on.

This was called a 'liberal' way of thinking: one's mind is free from the restrictions of our own thought that we impose on ourselves and one's mind is freed to think thoughts that society discourages us from thinking.

The Social Sciences are the youngest branches of the knowledge tree. They reflect the explosion of information, facts and theories that accompanied the Industrial Revolution of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.

Economics is sometimes said to have begun in 1776 (a fateful year) with the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. (Look it up!)