The Crisis of Professional Skepticism
Friends, I am reproducing this article gratis. I have a purpose in doing so. I wish to earn nothing from the intellectual vacuity of pseudo-skepticism, even when, as here, I correct its excesses. This piece originally appeared February 27, 2023, at Medium . -M-
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A brilliant 20th century sociologist Marcello Truzzi (1935–2003) called himself a “constructive skeptic” of paranormal phenomena.
In 1975 and again in 1978, Truzzi, a man of even temperament, refined ethics, and dedicated but authentically questioning skepticism, stated a principle—not wholly original to him—that was later popularized by astronomer Carl Sagan.
Truzzi’s maxim was: “An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof.” [1] The widely quoted precept, redubbed the “ Sagan standard,” was repeated by the televised astronomer in 1980 as: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
