Recently, a comment-maker left here this remark: “scoftic (a made-up word that has no meaning).”
Why does “scoftic” kick up so many feelings about whether it even exists?
The facts, actually, show that the scoffing statement about the word itself are hardly supportable. Indeed, since all words are “made-up” by humans, this one ~ scoftic ~ is a viable created word that does have meaning, which is understood by a community of people.
I have written about the word at Cryptomundo on April 28, 2007, for example, when I shared some of the history of the term.
Sometime before the fall of 2003, Roger Knights, a frequent comment maker on all matters Bigfoot, decided to coin a word that he felt would be a counter to words like “pseudoscience.” According to his own accounting, Knights first used “scoftic” on the Bigfoot Forums on September 13, 2003. No, it was not a Friday, but the date in the old Roman festival calendar is epulum Iovis (“banquet of Jupiter”), on the Ides, during the Ludi Romani. Perhaps Knights should have been beware of the Ides of September, for his term itself has been debated almost as much as what he wished to point out by inventing it.
According to various documents online, and in articles, such as in Fate, September 2005, Knights has developed an exacting meaning for what the term means to him.
My thumbnail definition of “scofticism” is “UNhealthy skepticism.” This is a play on the common phrase, “a healthy (dose of) skepticism.”Roger Knights
Knights has been clear that a “scoftic” is not the investigator who goes out into the field, examines the Bigfoot evidence and finds it was made by, for example, a bear or Ray Wallace. No, Knights appears to be specifically talking about the programmed skeptic who is defined more by a pre-determined mindset than the results of any thoughtful probing of the evidence.
By “scoftic” [I mean] someone who…gives witness testimony no weight whatsoever, on ideological grounds, and who asserts numerous other bits of unreasonable dogma, such as that the quantity of reports is insignificant. Scofticism is thus fanaticism behind a pose of reasonableness. The reasonable pose is “show me the evidence.” The “fine print” is all the qualifiers, and all the hidden assumptions and misdirections.
A nutshell definition of scofticism would be “scientism in disguise,” although that’s not quite accurate….Another thumbnail definition is “a cranky skeptic.”Roger Knights
Of course, some skeptics and apparently scoftics have not been happy with the word.
“Scoftic” has to be the most ridiculous word in the current lexicon of Bigfoot research.Nightwing, November 2006
And…
“Scoftic” – a Roger Knights neologism.Matt Crowley, September 2005
But there is little doubt now that the word has been invented and the person who coined it was Bigfoot intellectual and Bigfoot Forum’s founder Roger Knights.
Knights continues to share at various forums, blogs, and sites around the web the history of the word and his thought process behind coming up with it:
I suggest “scoftic.” It floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. And it’s only two syllables. Anything longer is too earnest–and thus self-defeating. A short, snappy nickname is the most dismissive….
Another point in favor of “scoftic” (which is my coinage, BTW) is that it was inspired by Marcello Truzzi’s complaint, when he resigned from CSICOP, that most people who call themselves skeptics are really scoffers….
Scofticism goes beyond a defense of materialism. It’s a defense of the mundane in general (eg, opposition to cryptozoology), and a championing of a rule-driven approach to things. (See the book, “The Essential Difference” for more on rule-driven mentalities.) This comes out in their emphasis on formal processes like peer review, and their utter denigration of anything that has not received such a “nihil obstat.” ~ Roger Knights, January 7-8, 2007.
How involved and interested folks are in the topic of “scofticism” can be seen in the long discussions that occur in the wake of postings on the topic here at Cryptomundo. For example, the original 2007 notes on “scoftic” garnered over 80 comments and the spin-off of that “scoftic” posting, about the reliability of scientists as witnesses vs truck drivers, generated 165 comments (see here).
Oh, my friends, “scoftic” is a word to humans, and what it means creates a level of emotional and intellectual turmoil in people that shows it stirs humans who are still defining how it will be employed. The Roger Knights-coined word has moved into wider usage, no doubt about it.
Art by Dave Lowe.
Thank You.
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