Shermer
E201269
Shermer is the surname of Michael Shermer, an American science writer and founder of The Skeptics Society known for promoting scientific skepticism.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Shermer canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1796453 — 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: Shermer Context triple: [Michael Shermer, familyName, Shermer]
-
A.
Redlands
Redlands is a historic city in Southern California known for its citrus-growing heritage, Victorian architecture, and role as an educational and cultural hub in the Inland Empire.
-
B.
Berkley
Berkley is a small rural town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, known for its quiet residential character and proximity to the Taunton River.
-
C.
Shafter
Shafter is a surname most notably associated with William R. Shafter, a U.S. Army general who served in the American Civil War and the Spanish–American War.
-
D.
Seymour
Seymour is a small unincorporated community and suburban area in eastern Tennessee, situated near Knoxville in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
-
E.
Hughson
Hughson is a small agricultural city located in California’s Central Valley.
- 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: Shermer Target entity description: Shermer is the surname of Michael Shermer, an American science writer and founder of The Skeptics Society known for promoting scientific skepticism.
-
A.
Redlands
Redlands is a historic city in Southern California known for its citrus-growing heritage, Victorian architecture, and role as an educational and cultural hub in the Inland Empire.
-
B.
Berkley
Berkley is a small rural town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, known for its quiet residential character and proximity to the Taunton River.
-
C.
Shafter
Shafter is a surname most notably associated with William R. Shafter, a U.S. Army general who served in the American Civil War and the Spanish–American War.
-
D.
Seymour
Seymour is a small unincorporated community and suburban area in eastern Tennessee, situated near Knoxville in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
-
E.
Hughson
Hughson is a small agricultural city located in California’s Central Valley.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
author
ⓘ
family name ⓘ historian of science ⓘ human ⓘ public intellectual ⓘ science writer ⓘ skeptic ⓘ surname ⓘ |
| academicDegree | PhD in the history of science ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Humanist of the Year
ⓘ
surface form:
Humanist of the Year (American Humanist Association)
|
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1954-09-08 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
California State University, Fullerton
ⓘ
Claremont Graduate University ⓘ Pepperdine University ⓘ |
| employer | The Skeptics Society ⓘ |
| familyName | Shermer self-linksurface differs ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
history of science
ⓘ
science communication ⓘ scientific skepticism ⓘ |
| genre |
non-fiction
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| givenName | Michael ⓘ |
| hasNotableBearer | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
| hasWebsite |
https://michaelshermer.com/
ⓘ
https://www.skeptic.com/ ⓘ |
| hasYouTubeChannel | The Michael Shermer Show ⓘ |
| hostOf |
The Michael Shermer Show
ⓘ
surface form:
The Michael Shermer Show podcast
|
| knownFor |
founding The Skeptics Society
ⓘ
popular science writing ⓘ promoting scientific skepticism ⓘ publishing Skeptic magazine ⓘ |
| languageOfOrigin | English ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| movement |
secular humanism
ⓘ
skeptical movement ⓘ |
| nationality | American ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye
ⓘ
The Believing Brain ⓘ The Moral Arc ⓘ Why People Believe Weird Things ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth |
Glendale
ⓘ
surface form:
Glendale, California
|
| positionHeld |
editor-in-chief of Skeptic magazine
ⓘ
founder of The Skeptics Society ⓘ |
| religiousView | agnostic ⓘ |
| residence |
California, United States
ⓘ
surface form:
California
|
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| usedBy | Michael Shermer ⓘ |
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: Shermer Description of subject: Shermer is the surname of Michael Shermer, an American science writer and founder of The Skeptics Society known for promoting scientific skepticism.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Michael Shermer