Why do a thesis?

When writing my doctoral thesis myself, if someone asked me why I had embarked on this work, I answered without hesitation: out of passion! It happened to me to feel slight disapproval in the eyes of my interlocutor as if carrying out such a long and expensive work, for this reason, was too unreasonable.

Today, accompanying doctoral students and helping them in their difficulties, I often ask myself the question: what pushed us to engage in such work, so long, so arduous, so little or so poorly recognized, poorly paid, or even totally free, and poorly understood by our loved ones and by society as a whole? There must be a kind of sacred fire to do a thesis!

More prosaically, I have identified four main reasons that come into play: they are always present, with each doctoral student, but each with varying intensity. I will try to present them to you and underline what each reason can bring to the thesis or what dangers it can lead to.

Do a thesis to understand out of curiosity.

Passion is the fuel of your thesis: you want to understand, to solve an enigma that has arisen for you. The subject you have chosen echoes unconscious motivations – you do not always know them in detail; either way, you're ready to spend years on your theme. This intellectual curiosity is essential. Do not choose a subject that bores you a little or that has been imposed on you by your director: otherwise, you will live in hell because this theme will occupy your thoughts every day for at least 3 years, probably more! It must therefore be intimate and pleasant to you.

Loving your subject doesn't mean you'll never get bored of it; maybe a little weariness will point towards the end of the thesis. But if you don't like it, it will be worse.

Therefore, it is essential to feel a keen curiosity about your subject, a singular curiosity.

The pitfalls of this motivation

We are sometimes so passionate about our thesis subject, so driven that we cannot bring ourselves to finish writing our thesis. Writing is necessary to reduce reality, smooth it out, and accept that we cannot say everything. For some, after years in the field where all the nuances of reality have appeared to them, it turns out to be very frustrating to write this text which will only be able to express a limited point of view (even in 400 pages). And yet, you have to go through it... So when you write your thesis, ensure that a sure pragmatism moderates your intellectual curiosity.

Do a thesis to demonstrate/denounce a situation.

Wanting to demonstrate something is a bit different from wanting to understand something. In SHS, some doctoral students have a relatively precise idea of what they want to say in their thesis, like an intuition they seek to verify.

This intuition may come from their political or philosophical ideals; many doctoral students have or have had an activist activity in the field they are researching.

It can also come from professional experience; it is expected that in the middle of a career, one wishes to give substance to reflections that one has forged through one's experience, and that one embarks on a thesis precisely for this reason.

The desire to demonstrate is not evil in itself; it is ultimately essential to a good argument.

The pitfalls of this motivation

Wanting to demonstrate at all costs can lead to blindness to contradiction and severe methodological errors. The hypotheses posed are systematically validated by overinterpreted or sorted data to go in the direction of the hypothesis. It is a widespread error, which one can define as a breach of the principle of axiological neutrality if one wants exact words.

It is, therefore, necessary that a solid methodology comes to support the approach. Otherwise, you will make mistakes. I think it is not forbidden to have a subjective point of view in SHS, but it must be assumed as such and presented to the reader: this article on the use of the "I" in the text will give you some tracks.

Another bias: if you come from a non-academic professional background, you may be tempted to do a thesis that is too prescriptive, that is, a thesis that aims to give recommendations to professionals in a given sector. However, a thesis is not a document of recommendations (even if a chapter "recommendations" sometimes closes the reflection in specific disciplines! But this chapter must be well circumscribed and follow an objective analysis). Why should a thesis not seek to give practical orientations? Because the scientific process is to analyze what is, not what should be.

So be sure to formulate your research question in the sense of an analysis of the existing and not in that of a search for possibilities.

The pitfalls of this motivation

First, by seeking approval, you put terrible pressure on yourself. Even a temporary failure will significantly destabilize you. If you value the result (getting that doctorate!) too much over the process (learning to do research), you will suffer from the ups and downs of the path.

Sometimes a chronic lack of confidence is associated with this desire to demonstrate that one is capable of it. We denigrate her current situation ("simple" student, "simple" teacher, "simple" practitioner, "simple" mother); one feels inferior; the doctorate must come to avenge certain injustices or to elevate us in our own eyes. It's not condemnable, but don't bet everything on it. Also, learn to accept your mistakes because there will be some, and the world shouldn't fall apart.

And also learn… to love yourself as you are!

Do a thesis to delay entry into adulthood / or during an existential transition.

The thesis is a passage. A long passage, an area out of time. You are not a student; you often don't feel fully sought out. It's hard to be in-between, but it's also comfortable because it protects you from confident choices and gives you time to think.

I quickly recognized that this factor influenced my choice to do a thesis; that's not what made it mediocre or prevented me from concluding it. And if you also recognize yourself in this motivation… It doesn't matter!

Wanting to delay entry into adult life, I don't think that would only concern "losers"; thus, in life, there are periods of reflection, of latency. Are you afraid of being locked into the constraints of professional life? Do you want to make a living from your passion for a while? All in your honor.

The pitfalls of this motivation

Of course, the main pitfall of this motivation is that a powerful and uncontrolled force coming from the depths of your brain... prevents you from finishing your thesis! I very often meet doctoral students in this situation: desperate not to be able to finish. But what are their prospects? Do they want to finish?

The best way to avoid being acted upon by unconscious forces is to identify them and be lucid. So… a little self-analysis is in order!

I want to end with a situation that may seem caricatural to you but which I observe more often: some doctoral students do a thesis simply so as not to be unemployed. I do not have to judge this approach's merits; life's stresses are brutal. But I can express an opinion on the practical consequences of such choices: if the thesis is for you the last resort, something that you do for lack of anything better, you are heading for problems.

Each of the motivations I have exposed is valid and useful (taking care of the pitfalls they contain): but only one is ESSENTIAL; it is the first, namely, the passion for your subject. This primary motivation is to feed it, feed it, find it.