The famous dissertation, cited below, sparked the internecine, often bloody, decades-long war between the departments of Welcome Studies, Speak of the Devil Studies, You Betcha Studies, Acknowledgment Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Aloha Studies, and Assertiveness Training Studies. Following practices long established before the Thirty Years War, this protracted conflict was often waged on other department's turf, and resulted in many Department Chairs, even Deans, being roused from their beds and ungallantly spanked. The department of Naming Studies refuses to name the conflict and many deny it even occurred. _______ The Thanks List in Phd versus thanking in wider culture: cultural paradigms - the Oscar 'thank' and the Starbucks 'thank': issues of inclusivity and magnitude; inclusivity and magnitude of Phd 'thank'; limits to inclusivity: dealing with friends, parents, spouses and children - the dedication; limits to magnitude: use of appropriate language, irony and sarcasm; why 'thanked' bear no responsibility for errors; why no 'thanks' for those whose work cannibalised in thesis; extensive 'thanks' as smokescreen for unoriginality; generousity of 'thanks' as diversion from meanspirited, pernickety 'what follows'; historical overview: the genesis of Phd 'thanks' - 'Who did Plato thank?'; a revisionist view of contemporary practice - 'Thanking Re-Assessed'. Addendum I: Tractatus and Investigations as culturally deviant in their 'thanking' - 'Why does Wittgenstein thank no one?' Addendum II: The Festschrift as 'Thank-fest' ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html