Really? You need to be a licensed pilot to give a lecture on weather? A meteorologist couldn’t do it? Aerodynamics? A aeronautical engineer couldn’t give a lecture on this? Regulations? Sorry, Mr. Lawyer–you’re obviously unqualified due to your lack of a pilot’s license.
Sociology is the study of human social behavior. i say that Abagnale undoubtedly qualifies as a subject-matter expert in that field. Teaching a Sociology class is probably the most legit thing he’s ever done.
I think that is Don Simus’s point, although it seems that he doesn’t want to come out and say it. According to his OP quote from the eccesiatestes911 website:
So, it appears that he believes sociology isn’t a real field of study. You know, because a pilot impersonator gave (maybe, since apparently there is only Abagnale’s word for it) some intro lectures and wasn’t detected.
Now, if Abagnale had used sociology to rebuild a plane engine in midair while foiling “The Centre’s” evil machinations, it would all be legit.
The science of sociology theoretically and experimentally studies social processes with the aim of understanding the fundamental laws which govern those processes.
Social skills have no more relation to sociology than physical training has to physics.
Abagnale was sporting pilots uniform while cashing fake checks. The cashier girl instead of inspecting the check was looking at the young pilot. Is this sociology? Is this what Durkheim was after?
Notice that he’s ignoring you. Why is that? The reason is that “Don Simus” isn’t really a person but an AI experiment like ELIZA.
Or maybe he’s really a dog.
(Amazingly, that cartoon dates from July 2003. It’s more than twenty years old.)
He dropped out of high school, not out of flight school, right? Did not he fly a lot with instructor and solo? Did not he pass several FAA written exams and flight tests?
As you know, Abagnale had no training in sociology whatsoever.
Everyone can see that Travolta flies airplanes. This is not the occupation where a piece of paper turns you into something. And what about you, can you do anything real?
He had no training as a pilot whatsoever, and yet he claims to have taken over the controls of a commercial jet in mid-flight and done such a convincing job of it that the co-pilot didn’t suspect a thing.
But…but…you said, and I quote, “To fly passenger jets one needs 4 years of study and a B.S. degree”. So how can someone without a B.S. degree fly a passenger jet?
Your own statement says Travolta can’t be flying a passenger jet because he doesn’t have the needed requirement. Therefore, he must be using his Scientology powers (or some other method) and everyone just thinks he’s flying his plane. Usthay itay isay ovedpray.
Are you saying a “piece of paper”, like a degree, is not really needed for occupations you respect, given a certain skill set, although you say they are required?
What about answering my question about whether other non-pilot license holders could be qualified to give intro lectures on certain topics like regulations, aerodynamics, or weather?
I can make a shoe smell.
With props to Tony D’Annunzio from Caddyshack
Well, you see, Abagnale is obviously lying with regard to this claim. Not withstanding John Travolta and his Scientology superpowers, you need a B.S. degree to fly a passenger plane.
However, when Abagnale claims to have fooled a sociology department it is proof that sociology is a not a real academic field.
You take the quote out of context. I said that to get hired to read lectures at a university you need a PhD, while to get hired by an airline to fly jets only a B.S.
This means that the crook performed at a university the duties which allegedly require 7 years of education. However for an airline he never performed the duties which require only 4 years of study.
If, as you say, one needs even less education to fly a passenger jet, the fact that Abagnale never did that, while he successfully read lectures at a university, is even more striking.
I never said that certificates are not needed. In real fields they indeed certify skill levels. However, in other fields they are just pieces of paper and do not certify any real skills.
Abagnale simply never made such claim.
OK, so there is a claim by one generally reputed Master Impostor – someone who is allegedly among the world’s best at knowing how to keep up a front and even pass * briefly* among professionals (if not challenged) in a number of different areas – to have performed some duties associated with the entry level of academics in a social science (remember, when confronted even HE did NOT claim he was hired as an actual professor ). And IF that is to be lent credibility, does this constitute evidence that particular field of study is not “real”? Is that your claim, sir?
Should we ask rather if it makes the entire profession of *undergraduate teaching *be that which is “not real”? Remenber, Abnagale never performed any work in actual sociological research and never claimed to have done so, just to have conducted lectures . Or maybe it makes the occupation of *hiring manager at the BYU School of Social Science in the 1960s *be the one that was “not real”.
Sociology is a real field of study and research. So is philosophy. So is art and literary criticism. Are you in fact suggesting they are not?
Then why did you agree that he had made such a claim back in post #115?
This is still false. You should stop claiming it.
Really? Here’s where you said it in response to one of my questions:
Where did you say “to get hired by an airline”? Seems to me that you want to apply some context that was not in your original statement. Flying a passenger jet is not the same thing as getting hired by an airline. And, note that you said a B.S. was the minimum requirement for teaching classes, not a Ph.D.
Plenty of people here have pointed out that the duties Abagnale performed (if he actually did at all) do not require Ph.D.'s.
So, again, is it your opinion that sociology is not a real field and Ph.D.'s in sociology are basically worthless pieces of paper?
See Lamia’s post.
I did not agree to it in post 115.
Yes, you did.
Later:
(Emphasis added.)
You are clearly trying to play some weaselly semantic game about what constitutes “flying”, but you agreed that Abagnale took the controls of the airplane…which is exactly what I said he did. Anyone who’s interested can read the story in Catch Me If You Can for themselves, but I’ll quote the most relevant portion:
Now, perhaps you can answer a couple of questions for me. How was a juvenile delinquent and high school dropout with no flight training able to quickly and successfully operate the autopilot on a commercial jet? And, perhaps more importantly, why didn’t the co-pilot notice anything suspicious?
He flew lots of times in cockpit and have seen how pilots operate the airplane including engaging and disengaging the autopilot. Why should it be difficult?
Besides, could you please answer one simple question? You are so educated and intelligent . Perhaps Abagnale’s BYU position did not require a PhD, but yours certainly does. Why you don’t fly a Cessna?
It’s a long thread, so maybe I’ve missed it, but—have you answered enalzi’s “one simple question” yet?
Could you?