the doctor of philosophy, (phd, ph.d., dphil or d.phil.) is a degree a person gets from a university by finishing a doctorate program. in many areas of study, the phd/dphil is the highest degree that a person can earn (this is called the "terminal degree"). there are phd/dphil degrees for many different fields, such as phds/dphils in literature, philosophy, history, science, mathematics, and engineering. some phd/dphil degrees have existed for hundreds of years, such as the phd/dphil in canon law. other phd/dphil degrees were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the phd/dphil in computer science.