<a href="http://www.tricksterbook.com/truzzi/ZeteticScholars.html" target="_blank" title="zsno1.jpg"><img src="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/zsno1.jpg" title="zsno1.jpg" alt="zsno1.jpg" align="left" border="0" hspace="8" vspace="8" /></a>Serious, scholarly writing and research into anomalous phenomena is a rare thing though, like a daylight UFO, it does still flash across the bows occasionally in journals and magazines like <a href="http://www.anomalist.com/" target="_blank">The Anomalist</a>, Magonia (web site currently down), <a href="http://www.forteantimes.com" target="_blank">Fortean Times</a>, <a href="http://darklore.dailygrail.com/" target="_blank">Dark Lore</a> (more on this soon) and of course <a href="http://www.strangeattractor.co.uk">Strange Attractor</a>.

So kudos and thanks to George Hansen, author of one of the most important fortean books of recent years, <em><a href="http://www.tricksterbook.com" target="_blank">The Trickster and The Paranomal</a></em>, for scanning and uploading several editions of the late Marcello Truzzi's <a href="http://www.tricksterbook.com/truzzi/ZeteticScholars.html" target="_blank">Zetetic Scholar.</a>

Truzzi was a sociologist with a fascination for the fringe, and his journal presents a model of how these things should be done: serious, dogma-free thinking and writing of an extremely high standard, flashed through with wry humour and a cheerful sense of the absurd.

The name comes from the classical school of thought centred around the philosopher Pyrrho (who died in 270BC, though the school didn't emerge until a century or so later)  and suggests the approach of a sceptical seeker. Zeteticism leaves us sceptical of being able to fully understand <em>anything</em>: our understanding of the world is always changing, just as the world is always changing around us. Wrote Truzzi:

<em>"In science, the burden of proof falls upon the claimant; and the more extraordinary a claim, the heavier is the burden of proof demanded. The true skeptic takes an agnostic position, one that says the claim is </em><em>not proved rather than </em><em>disproved."  </em>

You may recognise the beginning of this quote, borrowed from the 19th century French scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace, which was also recycled by the astronomer Carl Sagan.

There are 13 issues of ZS online in PDF form, dating from 1978-1987, and while they make a fabulous time capsule of rejected knowledge, it's also a little disconcerting to note that in most areas, understanding  of  the phenomena in question has advanced very little in the intervening years.

<em><a href="http://www.tricksterbook.com/truzzi/ZeteticScholars.html" target="_blank">The Zetetic Scholar</a></em>