One can assume that 98 to 99 percent of all academic text productions “are written with the however justified or unjustified expectation of partial or complete non-reading”.

The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk expressed this assessment in 2011 at the Bayreuth conference “Plagiarism, Scientific Ethics and Intellectual Property”.

His lecture was printed in the conference proceedings in 2013 under the title "The Saint and the Impostor" after a first printed version had appeared in "Spiegel" as "Doktor Wenn und Doktor Aber".

"For people of a culture which guides its members in almost everything to obey and disobey the Rule, the almost inevitable consequence is to give to the non-reader,

Now it seems that Sloterdijk was also given what he deserved as an examiner.

Eleven years ago, the then rector of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design reflected on the fact that unexpectedly real reading can lead to catastrophe, after three years earlier he had approved Yana Milev's dissertation submitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

The fact that this work was actually read by someone fourteen years after it was accepted is due to the author's fear of old age.

In a letter from a lawyer to the Wikimedia Foundation in the United States, Milev - according to her own website "cultural philosopher, sociologist, ethnographer, curator, publicist" - recently explained that her date of birth was not

Reconciliation in one's own biography

Milev explained to the FAZ that the year of birth, like other personal data, may only be managed by offices, authorities and institutions in confidential agreement.

However, she had given the date herself on the curriculum vitae submitted during the doctoral procedure.

Anyone who borrows the original document of their doctoral thesis in Vienna, as did a Wikipedia contributor, can read: Born in 1964, graduated from high school in 1982, Protestant baptism in 2003 (“on the former death strip of the Berlin Wall, Bernauer Strasse, Berlin Mitte/Wedding; a symbol of the interdenominational reconciliation in one's own biography").

The Wikipedian not only found data, but also plagiarism, especially from Wikipedia.

As a result, the science platform VroniPlag Wiki documented 66 pages of plagiarized text, and the Academy of Fine Arts is now forming a commission to review the dissertation.

For example, pages 137 and 138 are almost entirely and almost verbatim taken from three Wikipedia articles.

Elsewhere, Wikipedia is correctly quoted, showing that Milev knows the rules.

In their bibliography, however, Wikipedia is only mentioned in general under the ominous heading "Web links - content providers - portals - blogs", so the reader is not able to study the sources.

Although Milev lists 317 other titles, for many there are no references at all.

A greater depth of reception than the actual one is suggested to readers.

A random check shows that receipts are missing for 60 of 73 titles.

At the same time, literal quotations flood the work; according to the VroniPlag Wiki, they should make up 27 percent of the text.

Finally, the table of contents contains detailed information on a second part, which no library knows about.

Milev told the FAZ that the second part was planned but never implemented.

In the foreword of both parts we read a thank you to the doctoral supervisor "for the opportunity to clarify myself with this process, to recognize connections, to create basics, as well as new beginnings".

The citation culture, Sloterdijk pointed out in 2011, is the last line on which the university defends its identity.

"Although it may now be challenged by a new wave of impostor subjectivities dressed in digital, ironic and buccaneering clothes, the new players who joke around with the rule book of the minimum of serious work have to be shown where the limit is .” With doctoral supervisor Sloterdijk, this boundary seems to have been dissolved.

He rated the plagiarized work "summa cum laude".

In March 2020, Milev, who has since qualified as a professor, came forward with the thesis that politicians “in our democracies are now instrumentalizing the corona pandemic in order to create legal vacuums in order to soon enforce laws that ultimately serve the big companies”.

She asked: Do you know if the savings banks will open again after the crisis?

What will the deposits be worth?

When Milev predicted at the time that truth would be the first casualty in wartime transactions, that was not original in terms of content – ​​there is an almost identical quote in the Wiktionary – but it was unintentionally forward-looking, because the questioner was “Sputnik”, a Russian propaganda portal.