Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal , abbreviated to CSICOP, a research and education organization operating under the auspices of the American non-profit organization Center for Inquiry . the CSI activities are aimed at promoting the use of the principles of scientific skepticism when investigating eyewitness accounts of paranormal activity and statements by March inalnyh Sciences .
The Committee was established in 1976 at the initiative of the American philosopher and humanist P. Kurtz .
Creation
Due to the growing interest in paranormal phenomena in the USA in the 1970s, there were fears that irrationalism was raising its head in the country. [1] . This prompted the philosophy professor Paul Kurtz to create the CSICOP at a specially convened conference of the American Humanist Association (AHA), held April 30 - May 1, 1976 at the University of Buffalo in Amherst [2] .
Back in 1975, Kurtz organized a collection of signatures under the Objections to Astrology statement, which was supported by 186 scientists and published in the Bulletin of the AHA published by the AHA . The Humanist [1] . According to Kurtz himself, the statement was also sent to all newspapers in the USA and Canada. The support received prompted Kurtz to invite “as many skeptical scientists as he could find” to a conference whose goal was to create a new organization that would devote itself to critical research on a wide range of paranormal phenomena [2] . Among the guests were Martin Gardner , Ray Hyman , James Randy , Marcello Truzzi , who were already members of a similar, but unpopular, association, Eng. Resources for the Scientific Evaluation of the Paranormal (RSEP) [1] . Kurtz managed to convince them to dissolve their organization and join the CSICOP together with other RSEP members ( Karl Sagan , Isaac Asimov , B. F. Skinner , Philip Klass ) [3] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research , Volume 86, No. January 1, 1992
- ↑ 1 2 Kurtz, Paul (July 2001), A Quarter Century of Skeptical Inquiry My Personal Involvement , Skeptical Inquirer , < http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-07/kurtz.html > . Retrieved December 1, 2008. Archived March 5, 2008 on Wayback Machine
- ↑ CSICOP website . CSICOP. Date of treatment October 31, 2006.