There are many professional doctorates that do not require dissertations (MD, DO, DC, JD, DDS, etc.). I don't know what criticism you have with Shaq not doing a dissertation. As his spokesman said, the capstone is the standard practice at many ivy leagues.
Is an MD a less significant degree because there was no dissertation? No. There are different kinds of doctorates, and they all require a lot of hard work. The people criticizing Shaq for not doing a dissertation are just very ignorant of how other fields work.
I said that Shaq is a credible source on matters of education because he studied that subject enough to get a doctorate. That's pretty indisputable.
i am not denying that shaq is a credible source of information on the topic of education, and i'm not criticizing his degree.
i'm criticizing you for championing as fact the words of a complete stranger merely because he has a phd. it's confusing given that the position you are championing is "the education system is bad because it operates entirely on appeals to authority."
tbh i'm mostly just poking fun at you for suddenly asserting an appeal to authority when the speaker says something you already agreed with. your worldview is in many ways fundamentally based on a resistance to appeals to authority (not meant as a criticism); you can't start asserting it now.
I never said that ALL appeals to authority are bad. Its more like blind appeals to an authority are bad. An appeal to a credible authority is good!
It is a perfectly legitimate argument to point to NASA pictures as proof that the earth is round. It is also perfectly legitimate for us to discredit that source of authority by pointing out the questionable and sketchy pictures NASA has produced.
In order to discredit Shaq as a source of authority you would need to show that he cheated in his classes or something, just like we regularly show that NASA is cheating in its efforts.