Laboratoire de Zététique

The Laboratoire de Zététique (English: Zetetic Laboratory) is an academic structure attached to the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, founded by professor Henri Broch in 1998.[1]

Laboratoire de Zététique
Zetetic Laboratory
Formation1998 (1998)
TypeResearch centre and educational institution
PurposeInvestigation of paranormal claims; promotion of critical thinking
HeadquartersUniversity of Nice Sophia Antipolis
Region served
France
President
Henri Broch
Websiteunice.fr/zetetique/

Purpose and history

The laboratory is a research and information centre concerned with purported "paranormal" or "abnormal" phenomena.[2] The goal is dissemination of the scientific method and zététique (defined as "the art of doubt", in English better known as scientific skepticism).[2]

Logo of the CAZ.

The Laboratoire de Zététique is run by an association called the Centre d'Analyse Zététique (Centre for Zetetic Analysis), which publishes the CAZette (a portmanteau of gazette and its abbreviation CAZ) since November 2011.[3] Since 2005, it is affiliated with the Center for Inquiry as "Center for Inquiry–France", with Henri Broch as its spokesperson and ambassador of CFI–Transnational.[2]

Between 1987 and 2002, the laboratory offered the International Zetetic Challenge for an award of €200,000; no one has ever succeeded in demonstrating a paranormal phenomenon under these controlled conditions, however. Mediums and clairvoyants were challenged to show their powers, but all 275 (or 264[4]) candidates failed.[5]

In 2004, the UFO skeptic Claude Maugé presented on the site of the laboratory his Composite Reductionist Theory (TCR) about UFOs to explain this phenomenon.[6]

Following Joe Nickell, Henri Broch once replicated the Shroud of Turin, demonstrating the bas-relief method as an easy explanation of how the Shroud could have been faked.[7]

In October 2007, Richard Monvoisin became the first Doctor of Science Education on the subject of skepticism. His thesis, titled Pour une didactique de l'esprit critique – Zététique & utilisation des interstices pseudoscientifiques dans les médias ("For Education in Critical Thinking. Skepticism & Usage of Pseudoscientific Interstices in the Media"),[8] was co-edited by codirected by Henri Broch and Patrick Lévy (Institut du sommeil et de la vigilance, faculté de médecine, Grenoble 1). Together with other French academics from other universities in Grenoble, Marseille, Montpellier etc., he founded the Collectif de recherche transdisciplinaire esprit critique et sciences (Cortecs) ("Interdisciplinary Research Collective on Critical Thinking and Science"). As of 2015, the Laboratoire de Zététique no longer offers courses on skepticism, but they have been transferred to the Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble, where Monvoisin's lectures on "Zététique & autodéfense intellectuelle" ("Skepticism & Intellectual Self-Defence") attract up to 900 students.[9]

See also

References
  1. "La diffusion de la démarche zététique". Zetetique.net (in French). 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  2. "Laboratoire – Présentation" (in French). Laboratoire de Zététique. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  3. "Actions" (in French). Laboratoire de Zététique. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  4. Enrique Márquez (3 February 2014). "Un premio millonario que ¿nadie quiere ganar?". Diario Veloz (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  5. "Z comme zététique, ou le pourfendeur du paranormal" (in French). Agence France-Presse. 8 September 2006.
  6. Claude Maugé (January 2004). "Une approche de la Théorie Réductionniste Composite" (in French). Laboratoire de Zététique. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  7. Jean-Luc Goudet (30 June 2005). "Un faux saint-suaire de Turin réalisé en cinq minutes !". Futura-Sciences (in French). Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  8. Richard Monvoisin (9 January 2008). "Pour une didactique de l'esprit critique (doctoral thesis)" (in French). Observatoire Zététique. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  9. Adrien de Tricornot (11 February 2015). "L'université de Grenoble réhabilite l'art du doute". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 20 February 2016.
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