Michael Shermer
E39614
Michael Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, and founder of *Skeptic* magazine, known for promoting scientific skepticism and critical thinking about paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Michael Shermer canonical | 17 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T308226 — 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: Michael Shermer Context triple: [James Randi, influenced, Michael Shermer]
-
A.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator known for popularizing astronomy and hosting shows like "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey."
-
B.
James Randi
James Randi was a Canadian-American stage magician and prominent skeptic best known for debunking paranormal and pseudoscientific claims through rigorous scientific investigation and public challenges.
-
C.
Dorion Sagan
Dorion Sagan is an American science writer and essayist known for his works on evolution, ecology, and complexity, and for coauthoring influential books with his mother, biologist Lynn Margulis.
-
D.
Timothy Ferris
Timothy Ferris is an American science writer and journalist known for his popular books on astronomy and cosmology and for helping bring complex scientific ideas to a broad audience.
-
E.
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, cosmologist, and science communicator best known for popularizing science through works like the book and television series "Cosmos."
- 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: Michael Shermer Target entity description: Michael Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, and founder of *Skeptic* magazine, known for promoting scientific skepticism and critical thinking about paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
-
A.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator known for popularizing astronomy and hosting shows like "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey."
-
B.
James Randi
James Randi was a Canadian-American stage magician and prominent skeptic best known for debunking paranormal and pseudoscientific claims through rigorous scientific investigation and public challenges.
-
C.
Dorion Sagan
Dorion Sagan is an American science writer and essayist known for his works on evolution, ecology, and complexity, and for coauthoring influential books with his mother, biologist Lynn Margulis.
-
D.
Timothy Ferris
Timothy Ferris is an American science writer and journalist known for his popular books on astronomy and cosmology and for helping bring complex scientific ideas to a broad audience.
-
E.
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, cosmologist, and science communicator best known for popularizing science through works like the book and television series "Cosmos."
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (52)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
author
ⓘ
historian of science ⓘ human ⓘ public intellectual ⓘ science writer ⓘ skeptic ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
California State University, Fullerton
ⓘ
Claremont Graduate University ⓘ Pepperdine University ⓘ |
| familyName | Shermer ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
critical thinking
ⓘ
history of science ⓘ science communication ⓘ scientific skepticism ⓘ |
| genre |
non-fiction
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| givenName | Michael ⓘ |
| hasTopic |
evolution by natural selection
ⓘ
morality and ethics ⓘ paranormal claims ⓘ pseudoscience ⓘ science and religion ⓘ |
| hasWrittenFor |
Scientific American
ⓘ
Skeptic magazine ⓘ |
| knownFor |
critiquing paranormal claims
ⓘ
critiquing pseudoscience ⓘ founding Skeptic magazine ⓘ promoting scientific skepticism ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| memberOf | The Skeptics Society ⓘ |
| movement |
secular humanism
ⓘ
skeptical movement ⓘ |
| name | Michael Shermer self-link ⓘ |
| notableWork |
How We Believe
ⓘ
Skeptic magazine ⓘ The Believing Brain ⓘ Enlightenment Now ⓘ
surface form:
The Moral Arc
The Science of Good and Evil ⓘ Why Darwin Matters ⓘ Why People Believe Weird Things ⓘ |
| occupation |
author
ⓘ
columnist ⓘ historian of science ⓘ magazine editor ⓘ public speaker ⓘ science writer ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
editor-in-chief of Skeptic magazine
ⓘ
founder of Skeptic magazine ⓘ founder of The Skeptics Society ⓘ |
| religiousView | agnostic ⓘ |
| 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: Michael Shermer Description of subject: Michael Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, and founder of *Skeptic* magazine, known for promoting scientific skepticism and critical thinking about paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
Referenced by (17)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.