The mission of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. To carry out these objectives the Committee:
- Maintains a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal, fringe science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education
- Prepares bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims
- Encourages research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it is needed
- Convenes conferences and meetings
- Publishes articles that examine claims of the paranormal
- Does not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but examines them objectively and carefully
The Committee is a program of the Center for Inquiry, a nonprofit educational organization. The Committee was launched in 1976. The Skeptical Inquirer is its official journal.
Some of the founding members of CSI include scientists, academics, and science writers such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Philip Klass, Paul Kurtz, Ray Hyman, James Randi, Martin Gardner, Sidney Hook, and others. A list of CSI fellows is published in every issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
CSI, encourages careful, rational, critical examination of unusual claims. One of the best guides is a short piece by Ray Hyman, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, titled “Proper Criticism”.
Contacting CSI
You can contact CSI for more information.
Name Change
In 2006, CSICOP changed its name to CSI. Read editor Kendrick Frazier’s comments on the change.