Paul Kurtz
E5044
Paul Kurtz was an American philosopher and prominent secular humanist who became a leading advocate of scientific skepticism and critical inquiry into paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Paul Kurtz canonical | 15 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T56485 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Paul Kurtz Context triple: [Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, foundedBy, Paul Kurtz]
-
A.
Erich Neumann
Erich Neumann was a German economist and Nazi official who held senior positions in the Third Reich’s economic administration and participated in high-level policy meetings during World War II.
-
B.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, and political activist widely regarded as the founder of modern linguistics and a prominent critic of U.S. foreign policy.
-
C.
Harold T. Shapiro
Harold T. Shapiro is an economist and academic leader best known for serving as president of both Princeton University and the University of Michigan and for his influential work at the intersection of higher education and public policy.
-
D.
Edward S. Herman
Edward S. Herman was an American economist, media analyst, and critic of U.S. foreign policy best known for co-developing the "propaganda model" of the media.
-
E.
Detlev W. Bronk
Detlev W. Bronk was an influential American scientist and educator known as a pioneer of biophysics and a prominent leader in national science policy.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Paul Kurtz Target entity description: Paul Kurtz was an American philosopher and prominent secular humanist who became a leading advocate of scientific skepticism and critical inquiry into paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
-
A.
Erich Neumann
Erich Neumann was a German economist and Nazi official who held senior positions in the Third Reich’s economic administration and participated in high-level policy meetings during World War II.
-
B.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, and political activist widely regarded as the founder of modern linguistics and a prominent critic of U.S. foreign policy.
-
C.
Harold T. Shapiro
Harold T. Shapiro is an economist and academic leader best known for serving as president of both Princeton University and the University of Michigan and for his influential work at the intersection of higher education and public policy.
-
D.
Edward S. Herman
Edward S. Herman was an American economist, media analyst, and critic of U.S. foreign policy best known for co-developing the "propaganda model" of the media.
-
E.
Detlev W. Bronk
Detlev W. Bronk was an influential American scientist and educator known as a pioneer of biophysics and a prominent leader in national science policy.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
human
ⓘ
philosopher ⓘ secular humanist ⓘ skeptic ⓘ |
| conflict | World War II ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1925-12-21 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2012-10-20 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Columbia University
ⓘ
New York University ⓘ |
| familyName | Kurtz ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
critical thinking
ⓘ
ethics ⓘ philosophy ⓘ scientific skepticism ⓘ secular humanism ⓘ |
| founded |
Center for Inquiry
ⓘ
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal ⓘ Center for Inquiry ⓘ
surface form:
Council for Secular Humanism
Prometheus Books ⓘ |
| givenName | Paul ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| militaryService | United States Army ⓘ |
| movement |
agnosticism
ⓘ
atheism ⓘ freethought ⓘ rationalism ⓘ secular humanism ⓘ skeptical movement ⓘ |
| name | Paul Kurtz self-link ⓘ |
| notableFor |
advocacy of scientific skepticism
ⓘ
critical inquiry into paranormal claims ⓘ criticism of pseudoscience ⓘ promoting secular humanism ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism
ⓘ
In Defense of Secular Humanism ⓘ The Transcendental Temptation ⓘ |
| occupation |
author
ⓘ
editor ⓘ educator ⓘ philosopher ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth |
Newark, New Jersey, United States
ⓘ
surface form:
Newark, New Jersey, United States of America
|
| placeOfDeath |
Amherst, New York, United States
ⓘ
surface form:
Amherst, New York, United States of America
|
| positionHeld |
chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
ⓘ
editor of Free Inquiry magazine ⓘ professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo ⓘ |
| religiousBelief |
atheism
ⓘ
secular humanism ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Paul Kurtz Description of subject: Paul Kurtz was an American philosopher and prominent secular humanist who became a leading advocate of scientific skepticism and critical inquiry into paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
Referenced by (15)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Free Inquiry
subject surface form:
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry