# Why hasn't Stephen Hawking been knighted?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [December 30, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990 "2009-12-30T01:07:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/21 "2009-12-31T17:17:07Z")
Since the OP’s been answered I’ll ponder, ‘Why did I think Stephen Hawking had died this past year?’ I’d have almost sworn to it.
This sentence from the article about his refusal is a bit ironic (bolding and other emphasis mine):
> [@](#):
>
> _ **Professor** _Hawking does not like titles. In fact he dislikes the whole concept of them," a spokesman told The Times.
I can understand disliking hereditary nobility titles such as Duke or Marquis, but a dubbing- just as a Ph.D.- being earned, I wonder what his problem is.
Albert Finney was asked about his refusal of a knighting on an interview show a few years ago- went _off_ about it.
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### Author:  [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/22 "2009-12-31T17:44:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> I can understand disliking hereditary nobility titles such as Duke or Marquis, but a dubbing- just as a Ph.D.- being earned, I wonder what his problem is.
Just a WAG: Some people don’t like titles at all – even ones that have been earned – because it implies the Titled person has greater ‘value’ than the Untitled person.
Compare someone that has their PhD in Physics with someone else that is a few months away from attaining the same PhD. The title implies the first person is a greater Physicist, however, their accomplishments might reflect the opposite.
Likewise compare someone with a PhD in Physics with someone else equally accomplished in a different field – but a field that does not use titles. Again the title implies greater accomplishment.
I have no idea if this is Hawking’s logic; just an example of one type of reasoning. Obviously, the more you have earned a title of distinction, the less you need it. Perhaps it is just as simple as that.
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/23 "2009-12-31T22:04:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> I can understand disliking hereditary nobility titles such as Duke or Marquis, but a dubbing- just as a Ph.D.- being earned, I wonder what his problem is.
Well, that’s not him referring to himself as professor, but the journalist. However, there is a big difference between titles like Professor and titles like Sir; the former depends on many years of high-level study, lecturing and research (only a few university lecturers are professors in the UK - the title’s not applied to any old PhD who works in a university), while the latter can be given to someone just for knowing the right people in business or singing a couple of successful songs.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/24 "2010-01-01T05:24:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> Albert Finney was asked about his refusal of a knighting on an interview show a few years ago- went _off_ about it.
Hold on a minute there, podnuh! You can’t just dangle that little teaser in front of us like that.
Dish!
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/25 "2010-01-01T05:36:25Z")
Well, you google “Albert Finney” and “dish”, you get a recipe for something called “Spotted Dick” which I flat refuse to know anything more about.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/26 "2010-01-01T06:03:47Z")
That voice is hard enough to understand as it is without being stuffed into a suit of armor.
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### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/27 "2010-01-01T06:07:30Z")
Sorry Stephen Hawking rejected, (he really deserves it) but you know what?
I think they’re flinging those knighthoods at just about everyone/thing these days!
“Sir _Loin_”???
My Og,! Was it _Henry VIII_ who started all that shit?
Not according to Snopes, it wasn’t.
But I couldn’t resist _this_ bit of “gallows” humor for my friend, **Johnny L.A.** 🙂
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4)
Pay close attention to the Black Knight’s dialogue at the first of the scene.
😉
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/28 "2010-01-01T06:29:16Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> That voice is hard enough to understand as it is without being stuffed into a suit of armor.
Be like talking with a can of tuna that’s way smarter than you.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/29 "2010-01-01T07:41:47Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Well, you google “Albert Finney” and “dish”, you get a recipe for something called “Spotted Dick” which I flat refuse to know anything more about.
Relax – it’s just a dessert: [Spotted Dick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick). It’s basically just like fruit cake served with pudding.
(No, I never had it myself, but I’ve heard of it.)
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### Author:  [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/30 "2010-01-02T14:51:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> Since the OP’s been answered I’ll ponder, ‘Why did I think Stephen Hawking had died this past year?’ I’d have almost sworn to it.
Some possibilities, he may not support the monarchy itself (as a mechanism within a democratic system), also he may support the monarchy in principle but not want to support a system that has at its powerful head the House of Lords – an unelected chamber.
More commonplace, and likely imo, is that he may view it as political in so much as the Queen heads a societal system in which privilege creates inequality, a system that perpetuates and furthers a class system in which one group benefits greatly at the expense of others – ‘expense’ in the sense of life opportunity and other advantage.
Some might argue that a society that uses capitalism merely as a tool to generate wealth – not even a society like the USA in which ‘capitalism’ is effectively the purpose of the society – creates enough advantage without the need for the Head of State to contribute still further. But to do so does, of course, allow that Head of State to further ingrain within the pillars of that society by the mere fact of bestowing honours.
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### Author:  [@kevlaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevlaw)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/31 "2010-01-02T21:02:46Z")
Another question is why is he not a member of the Order of Merit, but two useless Princes (Charles & Phillip) are. [cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Merit)
Shoving royalty into the Order of Merit demeans the whole thing IMO.
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### Author:  [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-stephen-hawking-been-knighted/522990/32 "2010-01-09T00:03:22Z")
That’s the whole point of it. There’s no damned nonsense of merit about it.
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