Anomalistics

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Anomalistics, a term originally conceived in 1974 by Drew University anthropologist Robert W. Wescott, is defined as the "...serious and systematic study of all phenomena that fail to fit the picture of reality provided for us by common sense or by the established sciences." Crediting creation of the field to Charles Fort, journalist, satirist, and chronicler of unexplained physical (as opposed to psychical) events, Wescott also named unorthodox biologist Ivan T. Sanderson, and scientist and Sourcebook Project,[1] compiler William R. Corliss, for bringing both expansion to the field and a degree of scientific perspective. Other major scientifically trained anomalists include J. Allen Hynek and Bernard Heuvelmans, each representative, respectively, of the field's two best-organized subdisciplines, ufology and cryptozoology, though in entirety it encompasses a much broader range of reported phenomena, some remaining obscure and explored in-depth only by specialists.

Solely anomalistic scientists tend to be unconcerned with reports of paranormal phenomena such as ESP, apparitions, poltergeists, psychokinesis and telepathy, consigning such matters instead to the differing field of parapsychology, and, in general outlook, to hold the phenomena of interest to them as explicable by physical laws or extensions of them, even if admittedly not yet fully understood, and several of them, such as falls from the sky and entombed animals, occasionally stretching the bounds of such conviction.

Contents

[edit] Four function of anomalistics

The late skeptic Marcello Truzzi, Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University, wrote in 2000 that there are four basic functions of anomalistics:[1]

  1. Anomalistics seeks to aid in the evaluation of a wide variety of anomaly claims proposed by both scientists and protoscientists.
  2. Anomalistics seeks to understand better the process of scientific adjudicatiction and to make that process both more just and rational.
  3. Anomalistics attempts to build a rational conceptual framework for both categorizing and accessing anomaly claims.
  4. Anomalistics seeks to act in the role of amicus curaie ("friends of the court") to the scientific community in its process of adjudication.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Marcello Truzz, "The Perspective of Anomalistics", in the Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience (2002) edited by Dr William F. Williams. Publ. Fitzroy Dearboorn Publishers ISBN 1-57958-207-9

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Anomalistics: The Outline of an Emerging Field of Investigation. Trenton, NJ: Research Division, New Jersey Department of Education, 1974
Anomalistics: A Bibliographic Introduction with Some Cautionary Remarks. Ron Westrum and Marcello Truzzi, Zetetic Scholar 1, (1978): 69-78.
Anomalistics: A New Field of Interdisciplinary Study. Fortean Times 36, (Winter 1982): 4-10.
Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Physical Phenomena. Jerome Clark, 1993

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