Doctoral school
From Zero to One
從零到一
This school practises doctoral-level thinking and becoming: how you go from an interest, to a question that can fail, to one artifact whose contribution you can defend in person.
- It does not grant a PhD.
- It does not confer the title Dr., or the title 博士.
- It does not issue a university certificate, transcript, or accredited award.
A completion note belongs to you. No institution is obliged to recognise it. This is not a route into a university, and we do not promise an admissions result.
Who it is for
Anyone who wants to practise turning an interest into a question that can stand. Enrolled, applying, or working outside a university. This school does not replace your faculty, your supervisor, or an ethics review.
Who it is not for
- Anyone shopping for Dr. or 博士 on a card.
- Anyone who wants a chapter, a proposal, or a thesis written for them.
Path
From Zero to One
The practice produces your own notes. We do not write them for you, and we do not call them a thesis.
This path is a draft. What a cohort actually does is confirmed in writing before it starts. This page is not a contract, and it states no fee.
Zero
Not a question yet
You have an interest, some anxiety, perhaps the shape of a topic. This station admits it: a topic is not yet a question.
ArtifactWrite down what you actually hold: interest, material, constraints.
1
Diagnosis
How you argue now. Where you let authority stand in for a reason, and where you treat a correlation as a cause.
ArtifactOne page: how I argue.
2
The craft of a question
A question has to be narrow enough to answer, and still able to fail.
ArtifactOne question, plus two things it deliberately does not answer.
3
Evidence Gym
What would count as evidence for this claim, and what is only atmosphere. The gym uses your question, not someone else’s model answer.
ArtifactA contrast of evidence and non-evidence.
4
A conversation you can enter
Literature is not a reading list. Find three voices you must answer, rather than stacking thirty names.
ArtifactThree positions you have to answer.
5
Method is a choice
A method is not a ritual. You choose it because it can touch your question, and you say where it cannot.
ArtifactHalf a page on the choice, including its blind spot.
One
One artifact
Not a thesis, and not a proposal form filled in. The spine of a research note: the question, what you claim to add, and what you still do not know.
ArtifactThe spine note.
Viva
In person
You defend the artifact, not your identity. The viva asks three things: what the contribution is, what it is not, and where it would collapse. There is no certificate.
ArtifactThe viva itself.
What this school will not do
- It will not write your chapter, proposal, or thesis.
- It will not contact your supervisor, or stand in for your faculty’s rules or ethics review.
- It will not give you a title to print on a card.
- It will not call a practice record a degree.
Once more: this school does not grant a PhD, does not confer Dr. or 博士, and does not issue a university certificate.