|
Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935 – February 2, 2003) was a professor of sociology at New College of Florida and later at Eastern Michigan University, founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), a founder of the Society for Scientific Exploration, and director for the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research. Truzzi was an investigator of various protosciences and pseudosciences and, as fellow CSICOP cofounder Paul Kurtz dubbed him "the skeptic's skeptic". He is credited with originating the oft-used phrase "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." ==Biography== Truzzi was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was the only child of juggler Massimiliano Truzzi and his wife Sonya. His family moved to the United States in 1940 where his father performed with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Truzzi served in the United States Army between 1958 and 1960; he became a naturalized citizen in 1961. Truzzi founded the skeptical journal ''Explorations'' and was a founding member of the skeptic organization CSICOP as its co-chairman with Paul Kurtz. Truzzi's journal became the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and was renamed ''The Zetetic'' ("zetetic" is another name for "skeptic" and is not to be confused with zetetics, the study of the relationship of art and science). The journal remained under his editorship. He left CSICOP about a year after its founding, after receiving a vote of no confidence from the group's Executive Council. Truzzi wanted to include pro-paranormal people in the organization and pro-paranormal research in the journal, but CSICOP felt that there were already enough organizations and journals dedicated to the paranormal. Kendrick Frazier became the editor of CSICOP's journal and the name was changed to ''Skeptical Inquirer''. After leaving CSICOP, Truzzi started another journal, the ''Zetetic Scholar''.〔(Zetetic Scholar archives )〕 He promoted the term "zeteticism" as an alternative to "skepticism", because he thought that the latter term was being usurped by what he termed "pseudoskeptics". A zetetic is a "skeptical seeker". The term's origins lie in the word for the followers of the skeptic Pyrrho in ancient Greece. ''Skeptic's Dictionary'' memorialized Truzzi thus: “Truzzi considered most skeptics to be pseudoskeptics, a term he coined to describe those who assume an occult or paranormal claim is false without bothering to investigate it. A kind way to state these differences might be to say that Marcello belonged to the Pyrrhonian tradition, most of the rest of us belong to the Academic skeptical tradition.”〔(in memoriam Skeptics and Scientists )〕 Truzzi was skeptical of investigators and debunkers who determined the validity of a claim prior to investigation. He accused CSICOP of increasingly unscientific behavior, for which he coined the term ''pseudoskepticism''. Truzzi stated: Truzzi held that CSICOP researchers sometimes also put unreasonable limits on the standards for proof regarding the study of anomalies and the paranormal. Martin Gardner writes: "In recent years he (Truzzi) has become a personal friend of Uri Geller; not that he believes Uri has psychic powers, as I understand it, but he admires Uri for having made a fortune by pretending he is not a magician."〔''Skeptical Odysseys: Personal Accounts by the Leading Paranormal Inquirers'' edited by Paul Kurtz, Prometheus Books, 2001, p 360〕 Truzzi co-authored a book on psychic detectives entitled ''The Blue Sense: Psychic Detectives and Crime''. It investigated many psychic detectives and concluded: "()e unearthed new evidence supporting ''both'' sides in the controversy. We hope to have shown that much of the debate has been extremely simplistic."〔Marcello Truzzi, ''The Blue Sense: Psychic Detectives and Crime'', The Mysterious Press, 1991., p. 284, paperback edition 〕 The book also stated that the evidence didn't meet the burden of proof demanded for such an extraordinary claim.〔Marcello Truzzi, ''The Blue Sense: Psychic Detectives and Crime'', The Mysterious Press, 1991., p. 252, hardback edition〕 Although he was very familiar with ''folie à deux'', Truzzi was very confident a shared visual hallucination could not be skeptically examined by one of the participators. Thus he categorized it as an anomaly. In a 1982 interview Truzzi stated that controlled ESP (ganzfeld) experiments have "gotten the right results" maybe 60 percent of the time.〔Marcello Truzzi, Detroit Free Press Science Page, 26 Oct 1982〕 This question remains controversial. Truzzi remained an advisor to IRVA, the International Remote Viewing Association, from its founding meeting until his death.〔(About IRVA )〕 Truzzi died from cancer on February 2, 2003. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marcello Truzzi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|