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Jan Feb 13 2_SI new design masters 11/29/12 11:26 AM Page 5 [ PAUL KURTZ IN MEMORIAM Paul Kurtz, Philosopher, Humanist Leader, and Founder of the Modern Skeptical Movement, Dies at Eighty-Six TOM FLYNN Paul Kurtz, founder and longtime chair At NYU Kurtz studied philosophy of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, under Sidney Hook, who had himself the Council for Secular Humanism, and been a protégé of the pragmatist philoso- the Center for Inquiry, died at the age pher John Dewey. The philosophy of of eighty-six on October 20, 2012. He Dewey and Hook, arguably the greatest was one of the most influential figures American thinkers in the humanist tra- in the humanist and skeptical move- dition, would deeply in fluence Kurtz’s ments from the late 1960s through the thought and activism. Kurtz graduated first decade of the twenty-first century. from NYU in 1948 and earned his PhD Among his best-known creations are in philosophy at Columbia University in the skeptics’ magazine SKEPTICAL IN- 1952. QUIRER, the secular humanist magazine Free Inquiry, and the independent pub- Academic Career lisher Prometheus Books. Kurtz taught philosophy at Trinity Col- Jonathan Kurtz, Paul’s son, told SI that lege from 1952 to 1959. He joined the his father had a “‘joyous’ last day, joking, faculty at Union College from 1961 to laughing, etc. He then died suddenly to- 1965; during this period he was also a ward bedtime. There was no suffering.” A visiting lecturer at the New School for joint CFI/CSI/CSH statement marked Social Research. In 1965 he was re- “with great sadness” the passing of their cruited by the new State Uni versity of involvement with the humanist move- founder, offered condolences to the fam- New York at Buffalo. The former Uni- ment. In 1967 he was named editor of ily, and called Kurtz “among the most sig- versity of Buffalo had re cently been ab- The Humanist, published by the Amer- nificant and impactful figures in the hu- sorbed into the state university system; ican Humanist Association (AHA), manist and skeptical movements.... We under Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the then the nation’s only significant hu- recommit ourselves to carrying on with institution launched an aggressive pro- manist organization. He took the mag- determination the causes Kurtz helped gram to recruit top young academics to azine in new directions, both by making bring to global prominence.” A Memorial its faculty. Kurtz became professor of its content more sharply critical of reli- Celebration of the Life and Vision of philosophy at SUNY Buffalo, a post he gion and by using aggressive techniques Paul Kurtz was scheduled for December held until his retirement from teaching to expand its circulation. Arguably, The 1 at the University at Buffalo, jointly in 1991. At this stage of his career, Humanist never en joyed greater cultural sponsored by the Philosophy Depart- Kurtz focused principally on methods prominence or higher circulation than ment and the Institute for Science and of objective inquiry and the history of during Kurtz’s editorship, but his force- Human Values. American philosophy. He contributed ful style led to friction with others the significant entry “American Phi - within AHA, including some members Early Life losophy” to the influential first edition of its board of directors. Kurtz gave up Paul Kurtz was born on December 21, of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967), editorship of The Humanist and parted 1925, to Martin and Sarah Kurtz of edited by Paul Edwards. He edited two ways with AHA in 1978. Ironically, that Newark, New Jersey. He enrolled briefly large anthologies of Amer ican philoso- was the very year in which, owing to at Washington Square College of New phy and published his best-known Kurtz’s influence, AHA moved its York University before enlisting in the scholarly work, Decision and the Condi- headquarters from San Francisco to U.S. Army at the height of World War tion of Man (1968). Amherst, New York, the location of II. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge SUNY Buffalo’s suburban campus. and served in a unit that liberated the The Humanist Movement (AHA would remain headquartered off Dachau concentration camp. He was It was in the late 1960s that Kurtz em- Harlem Road in Amherst until it demobilized eighteen months after the barked on the pursuit whose promi- moved to Washington, DC, in 2000.) war’s end and resumed his studies at nence would exceed even that of his ca- Kurtz was for more than a quarter- New York University (NYU). reer as a philosopher, when he began his century an influential figure in the In- Skeptical Inquirer | January/ February 2013 5 Jan Feb 13 2_SI new design masters 11/29/12 11:26 AM Page 6 ternational Humanist and Ethical Now led by Paul Kurtz’s son Jonathan, Kurtz and others founded the Union (IHEU), a worldwide network of the most impressive achievement of world’s first organization devoted solely national humanist organizations found - Prometheus Books may be that it has to scientific criticism of paranormal ed in Amsterdam in 1952. He joined retained its independence during five claims at an April 1976 conference at IHEU’s board of directors in 1969 and decades in which an enormous number SUNY Buffalo whose participants in- served as the organization’s cochairman of independent publishers closed down cluded author Isaac Asimov, author- from 1986 to 1994. Dur ing this period, or were absorbed. mathematician Martin Gardner, and Kurtz hosted IHEU’s Tenth World Paul Kurtz was perhaps best known magician James Randi. The organiza- Congress, held at SUNY Buffalo during for the three mutually supportive non- tion was originally known as the Com- the summer of 1988. profit organizations he founded in Buf- mittee for the Scientific Investi gation of falo and later Amherst, New York, now Claims of the Paranormal and became The Kurtz-Founded Organizations known as the Committee for Skep tical widely known by its acronym, CSICOP. Kurtz would be better known for his Inquiry, the Council for Secular Hu- Several months after its formation, work through organizations he founded manism, and the Center for Inquiry. CSICOP launched a journal, The Ze - and shaped from their inception. tetic, which later achieved great promi- In 1969, he founded Prometheus nence as the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Books, a for-profit publishing company which continues to be published bi- that quickly emerged as the dominant monthly. During its early years, CSI- imprint in skepticism, humanism, and COP encouraged the formation of local skeptics groups across the United States, atheism. It would become the most pro- Kurtz would be and of independent national skeptics lific publisher of atheist and humanist better known for organizations across the world. These titles in history. Since its founding it has his work through groups would form the kernel of today’s published more than 2,500 titles in what international skeptical movement. In has become a broad range of genres. Sig- organizations he 2006, the organization shortened its nificant milestones included the 1998 ac- founded and shaped name to the Committee for Skeptical quisition of most of the assets of the from their inception. Inquiry, partly to show that its concerns scholarly publisher Humanities Press In- now extended beyond its original focus ternational, giving rise to Prome theus’s on paranormal claims to include the imprint Humanity Books, and the for- public understanding of science and is- mation in 2005 of its Pyr division, sues in medicine and mental health. which has emerged as a prestige imprint In 1980, two years after his departure for science fiction and fantasy fiction. from the American Humanist Associ- ation, Kurtz launched a new, more ex- plicitly nonreligious humanist organiza- tion, the Council for Demo cratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH). The word “Democratic” was added to demon- strate the group’s opposition to Commu- nist totalitarianism, an important consid- eration since nontheism was then strongly associated with Communism in the public mind. The new organization’s first act was to release A Secular Human- ist Declaration, a position document originally signed by fifty-seven distin- guished activists and academics. Its re- lease was covered in a front-page story in the New York Times. The Council si- multaneously launched a journal, Free Inquiry, with Kurtz as its publisher and founding editor. Free Inquiry quickly Kurtz demonstrates to media how to fake a flying telephone “poltergeist.” This was in conjunction with the became the best-respected and highest- famous Columbus Poltergeist Case debunked in SI by James Randi (Spring 1985). circulation humanist magazine in the 6 Volume 37 Issue 1 | Skeptical Inquirer Jan Feb 13 2_SI new design masters 11/29/12 11:26 AM Page 7 [ PAUL KURTZ IN MEMORIAM U.S. It continues to be published bi- 2000, he received the Inter national Ra- monthly. tionalist Award at the Second Interna- In 1996, in response to the collapse tional Rationalist Con ference at of European Communism, the organ- Trivandrum, India. In 2001, he received ization shortened its name to the the Charles P. Norton Medal, the high- Council for Secular Humanism. It est award bestowed by the State Uni- maintains a network of independent versity of New York at Buffalo. In 2009, local groups, operates North America’s he received the Eupraxsopher Award, a only free thought museum, and en- special lifetime achievement award, gages in a variety of educational and from the Center for Inquiry, as well as advocacy activities. Since 2007, the the Philip J. Klass Award from the Na- Council has been lead plaintiff in a tional Capi tal Area Skeptics.

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