Showing papers on "Value (ethics) published in 2013"

Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems

Abstract: Value Sensitive Design is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the design process. It employs an integrative and iterative tripartite methodology, consisting of conceptual, empirical, and technical investigations. We explicate Value Sensitive Design by drawing on three case studies. The first study concerns information and control of web browser cookies, implicating the value of informed consent. The second study concerns using high-definition plasma displays in an office environment to provide a “window” to the outside world, implicating the values of physical and psychological well-being and privacy in public spaces. The third study concerns an integrated land use, transportation, and environmental simulation system to support public deliberation and debate on major land use and transportation decisions, implicating the values of fairness, accountability, and support for the democratic process, as well as a highly diverse range of values that might be held by different stakeholders, such as environmental sustainability, opportunities for business expansion, or walkable neighborhoods. We conclude with direct and practical suggestions for how to engage in Value Sensitive Design.

The Value of Corporate Culture

Abstract: We study which dimensions of corporate culture are related to a firm’s performance and why. We find that proclaimed values appear irrelevant. Yet, when employees perceive top managers as trustworthy and ethical, firm’s performance is stronger. We then study how different governance structures impact the ability to sustain integrity as a corporate value. We find that publicly traded firms are less able to sustain it. Traditional measures of corporate governance do not seem to have much of an impact.

Morals and Markets

Abstract: The possibility that market interaction may erode moral values is a long-standing, but controversial, hypothesis in the social sciences, ethics, and philosophy. To date, empirical evidence on decay of moral values through market interaction has been scarce. We present controlled experimental evidence on how market interaction changes how human subjects value harm and damage done to third parties. In the experiment, subjects decide between either saving the life of a mouse or receiving money. We compare individual decisions to those made in a bilateral and a multilateral market. In both markets, the willingness to kill the mouse is substantially higher than in individual decisions. Furthermore, in the multilateral market, prices for life deteriorate tremendously. In contrast, for morally neutral consumption choices, differences between institutions are small.

Revisiting IS business value research: what we already know, what we still need to know, and how we can get there

Abstract: The business value of investments in Information Systems (IS) has been, and is predicted to remain, one of the major research topics for IS researchers. While the vast majority of research papers on IS business value find empirical evidence in favour of both the operational and strategic relevance of IS, the fundamental question of the causal relationship between IS investments and business value remains partly unexplained. Three research tasks are essential requisites on the path towards addressing this epistemological question: the synthesis of existing knowledge, the identification of a lack of knowledge and the proposition of paths for closing the knowledge gaps. This paper considers each of these tasks. Research findings include that correlations between IS investments and productivity vary widely among companies and that the mismeasurement of IS investment impact may be rooted in delayed effects. Key limitations of current research are based on the ambiguity and fuzziness of IS business value, the neglected disaggregation of IS investments, and the unexplained process of creating internal and competitive value. Addressing the limitations we suggest research paths, such as the identification of synergy opportunities of IS assets, and the explanation of relationships between IS innovation and change in IS capabilities.

Declarations of dependence: labour, personhood, and welfare in southern Africa

Abstract: Dependence on others has often figured, in liberal thought, as the opposite of freedom. But the political anthropology of southern Africa has long recognized relations of social dependence as the very foundation of polities and persons alike. Reflecting on a long regional history of dependence ‘as a mode of action’ allows a new perspective on certain contemporary practices that appear to what we may call ‘the emancipatory liberal mind’ simply as lamentable manifestations of a reactionary and retrograde yearning for paternalism and inequality. Instead, this article argues that such practices are an entirely contemporary response to the historically novel emergence of a social world where people, long understood (under both pre-capitalist and early capitalist social systems) as scarce and valuable, have instead become seen as lacking value, and in surplus. Implications are drawn for contemporary politics and policy, in a world where both labour and forms of social membership based upon it are of diminishing value, and where social assistance and the various cash transfers associated with it are of increasing significance.

Action, Outcome, and Value A Dual-System Framework for Morality

Abstract: Dual-system approaches to psychology explain the fundamental properties of human judgment, decision making, and behavior across diverse domains. Yet, the appropriate characterization of each system is a source of debate. For instance, a large body of research on moral psychology makes use of the contrast between “emotional” and “rational/cognitive” processes, yet even the chief proponents of this division recognize its shortcomings. Largely independently, research in the computational neurosciences has identified a broad division between two algorithms for learning and choice derived from formal models of reinforcement learning. One assigns value to actions intrinsically based on past experience, while another derives representations of value from an internally represented causal model of the world. This division between action- and outcome-based value representation provides an ideal framework for a dual-system theory in the moral domain.

Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism, and Racial Inequality in Contemporary America

Abstract: Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism, and Racial Inequality in Contemporary America. AUTHOR: EDUARDO BONILLA-SILVA ROWMAN & LLTTLEFLELD PUBLISHERS, 2010 PRICE: $28.95 ISBN: 978-1-4422-0218-4 The tome may be divided into six (6) parts or sections, grouping its ten (10) chapters by theme. The first part (consisting of Ch. 1, "The Strange Enigma of Race in Contemporary America," introduces the book's subject. The second part (Chs. 2-4) is dedicated to an explication of the conceptual and ideological system of colorblind racism. The third section (Chs. 5-7) deals with the limits of "the new racism" (of which colorblind racism is the operating system) as concerns black and white communities in the U.S. In the fourth section (Ch. 8, "E Pluribus Unum or the Same Old Perfume in a New Bottle? On the Future of Racial Stratification in the U.S."), the author poses his most provocative idea: that racism in the U.S. is becoming more and more like racism in Latin America, a process Bonilla-Silva dubs "Latin Americanization." The fifth section of the book (Ch. 9, "Will Racism Disappear in Obamerica? The Sweet (but Deadly) Enchantment of Color Blindness in Black Face") renders Bonilla- Silva's critical judgment of the U.S. President, a chapter added especially for this third edition. Finally, the sixth and last section (Ch. 10, "Conclusion: 'The (Color-Blind) Emperor Has No Clothes': Exposing the Whiteness of Color Blindness") offers the author's thoughts about the task of challenging colorblind racism. The principal virtues of the book are largely contained in its first three parts (i.e., Chs. 1-7). One such noteworthy virtue is Bonilla-Silva's identification of the frames, rhetorical styles, and stories of the new racism as expressed in colorblind racism. As an ideology, colorblind racism, the author maintains, like all ideologies, expresses "ideas in the service of power (25)." There are four (4) basic frames: abstract liberalism; naturalization; cultural racism; and the minimization of racism (26-30). An example of abstract liberalism is a belief in "equal opportunity" at the same time justifying racial inequality and opposing affirmative action as "preferential treatment." Naturalization is a frame which permits the U.S. white majority to reject any consideration of racial phenomena since these phenomena are simply "natural", not man-made, developments. Cultural racism finds expression in observations such as "Mexicans have too many children," and "Afro-Americans don't value education", in order to explain the subordinate position of people of color in American society. And, the minimization frame encourages the belief that racial discrimination is lessening, or has disappeared, in this country and, thus, forms no significant impediment to the social status and mobility of people of color in the U.S. (A brilliant work of exposition on the legal basis for whiteness in the U.S., which anticipates some of these points made by Bonilla-Silva--e.g., naturalization [though defined legally], transparency, identity through negation, the role of language in constructing white racial identity--is Ian Haney Lopez, White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race, New York University Press, 1996, 2006.) Complementing the basic frames of colorblind racism, according to Bonilla-Silva, are its characteristic rhetorical styles. Five (5) styles are prevalent, uncovered by the author's interview research: avoidance of direct language about racial matters; the use of "verbal parachutes" to escape difficult subjects (e.g., affirmative action); psychological projection; the use of diminutives; and, as a last resort when facing an extremely sensitive racial topic (e.g., interracial marriage), the retreat into total verbal incoherence. Woven into the styles of colorblind racism are also its typical stories, which are of two (2) kinds: story lines and testimonies. Story lines revolve around four (4) basic claims: "The past is the past"; "I didn't own any slaves"; "The Jews, Italians, and Irish made it, why not black people? …

Recognizing Public Value

Abstract: Mark H. Moore's now classic Creating Public Value offered advice to public managers about how to create public value. But that book left a key question unresolved: how could one recognize (in an accounting sense) when public value had been created? Here, Moore closes the gap by setting forth a philosophy of performance measurement that will help public managers name, observe, and sometimes count the value they produce, whether in education, public health, safety, crime prevention, housing, or other areas. Blending case studies with theory, he argues that private sector models built on customer satisfaction and the bottom line cannot be transferred to government agencies. The Public Value Account (PVA), which Moore develops as an alternative, outlines the values that citizens want to see produced by, and reflected in, agency operations. These include the achievement of collectively defined missions, the fairness with which agencies operate, and the satisfaction of clients and other stake-holders. But strategic public managers also have to imagine and execute strategies that sustain or increase the value they create into the future. To help public managers with that task, Moore offers a Public Value Scorecard that focuses on the actions necessary to build legitimacy and support for the envisioned value, and on the innovations that have to be made in existing operational capacity. Using his scorecard, Moore evaluates the real-world management strategies of such former public managers as D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton, and Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Revenue John James.

How and when do personal values guide our attitudes and sociality? Explaining cross-cultural variability in attitude-value linkages.

Abstract: This article examines how and when personal values relate to social attitudes Considering values as motivational orientations, we propose an attitude-value taxonomy based on Moral Foundation Theory (Haidt & Joseph, 2007) and Schwartz's (1992) basic human values theory allowing predictions of (a) how social attitudes are related to personal values, and (b) when macro-contextual factors have an impact on attitude-value links In a meta-analysis based on the Schwartz Value Survey (Schwartz, 1992) and the Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz et al, 2001; k = 91, N = 30,357 from 31 countries), we found that self-transcendence (vs self-enhancement) values relate positively to fairness/proenvironmental and care/prosocial attitudes, and conservation (vs openness-to-change) values relate to purity/religious and authority/political attitudes, whereas ingroup/identity attitudes are not consistently associated with value dimensions Additionally, we hypothesize that the ecological, economic, and cultural context moderates the extent to which values guide social attitudes Results of the multi-level meta-analysis show that ecological and cultural factors inhibit or foster attitude-value associations: Disease stress is associated with lower attitude-value associations for conservation (vs openness-to-change) values; collectivism is associated with stronger attitude-value links for conservation values; individualism is associated with stronger attitude-value links for self-transcendence (vs self-enhancement) values; and uncertainty avoidance is associated with stronger attitude-values links, particularly for conservation values These findings challenge universalistic claims about context-independent attitude-value relations and contribute to refined future value and social attitude theories

Educational Value and Models-Based Practice in Physical Education.

Abstract: A models-based approach has been advocated as a means of overcoming the serious limitations of the traditional approach to physical education. One of the difficulties with this approach is that physical educators have sought to use it to achieve diverse and sometimes competing educational benefits, and these wide-ranging aspirations are rarely if ever achieved. Models-based practice offers a possible resolution to these problems by limiting the range of learning outcomes, subject matter and teaching strategies appropriate to each pedagogical model and thus the arguments that can be used for educational value. In this article, two examples are provided to support a case for educational value. This case is built on an examination of one established pedagogical model, Sport Education, which is informed by a perspective on ethics. Next, I consider Physical Literacy which, I suggest, is an existentialist philosophical perspective that could form the basis of a new pedagogical model. It is argued, in conclusion, that a models-based approach along with a reconstructed notion of educational value may offer a possible future for physical education that is well grounded in various philosophical arguments and the means to facilitate a wide range of diverse individual and social educational ‘goods’.

The Value of the Humanities

Abstract: Introduction 1. Distinction from other Disciplines 2. Use and Usefulness 3. Socrates Dissatisfied: The Argument for a Contribution to Happiness 4. 'Democracy Needs Us': The Gadfly Argument for the Humanities 5. For Its Own Sake Conclusion: On Public Value Bibliography

Corporate Governance of Big Data: Perspectives on Value, Risk, and Cost

Abstract: Finding data governance practices that maintain a balance between value creation and risk exposure is the new organizational imperative for unlocking competitive advantage and maximizing value from the application of big data. The first Web extra at http://youtu.be/B2RlkoNjrzA is a video in which author Paul Tallon expands on his article "Corporate Governance of Big Data: Perspectives on Value, Risk, and Cost" and discusses how finding data governance practices that maintain a balance between value creation and risk exposure is the new organizational imperative for unlocking competitive advantage and maximizing value from the application of big data. The second Web extra at http://youtu.be/g0RFa4swaf4 is a video in which author Paul Tallon discusses the supplementary material to his article "Corporate Governance of Big Data: Perspectives on Value, Risk, and Cost" and how projection models can help individuals responsible for data handling plan for and understand big data storage issues.

Determinants and Effects of Corporate Lobbying

Abstract: We examine the determinants and value effects of corporate lobbying, controlling for corporate political action committee (PAC) campaign contributions. We find evidence that firms with greater potential payoffs from favorable policy and regulations lobby most actively, and that managers often utilize both lobbying and campaign contribution channels to influence the political climate affecting the firm. We also find that shareholders value the lobbying activities pursued by management on their behalf, particularly if the firm does not have a PAC that contributed to an election campaign. The results are robust to a number of tests designed to mitigate potential omitted-variable and self-selection bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture Matters: National Value Cultures, Sources, and Consequences

Abstract: This chapter presents my theory of seven cultural value orientations and applies it to understanding relations of culture to significant societal phenomena. The first section of the chapter explicates my conception of culture, a conception of the normative value system that underlies social practices and institutions. Next, this section describes how the cultural value orientations can be measured. It then presents a validation of the content of the seven value orientations and the structure of relations among them, based on an analysis of data across 75 countries. Brief comparisons of these value orientations with two other dimensional approaches to culture are followed by an analysis that justifies treating countries as cultural units.

Toward Reimagining Strategy Research: Retrospection and Prospection on the 2011 AMR Decade Award Article

Abstract: We focus on implications of an agreed upon yet little considered conclusion from our 2001 article—that resource value is determined outside the business-level resource-based view. Starting with this premise, we argue that knowledge accumulation from strategy research—especially actionable knowledge about effective versus ineffective managerial judgments—would be stimulated with more balanced attention not only to value capture for the firm but also to value creation for the firm's customers and, ultimately, consumers. To spur such wider attention, we offer an expanded boundary model that includes the demand side, business models, and business ecosystems within the strategy research “umbrella.” Our proposal (1) extends what the current scholarly consensus might consider “normal” strategy research, (2) sets specific boundaries to guide future research, and (3) brings value creation for consumers to a more central position in the field. Viewing strategy from this broader perspective requires a shift in minds...

Normative power as hegemony

Abstract: This article identifies four key problems in the debate about normative power Europe that may be fruitfully tackled when linking it to the concept of hegemony: the debate about whether EU foreign and external policy is driven by norms or interests; the problem of inconsistent behaviour as a result of competing and contested norms; the question of the role of state and non-state actors in EU foreign and external policy; and the problematic standing of normative power as an academic engagement, in particular in regard to whether the theory is of primarily explanatory, descriptive or normative value. The author suggests that the concept of hegemony may address these problems. First, it combines norms and interests, thus transcending the divide that has resulted in endless debates about the EU’s standing as a normative power. Second, hegemony does not start from a pre-given set of norms with fixed meanings, but rather puts the struggles about these norms at centre stage, thus seeing inconsistencies not as und...

The Mixed Instrumental Controller: Using Value of Information to Combine Habitual Choice and Mental Simulation

Abstract: Instrumental behavior depends on both goal-directed and habitual mechanisms of choice. Normative views cast these mechanisms in terms of model-free and model-based methods of reinforcement learning, respectively. An influential proposal hypothesizes that model-free and model-based mechanisms coexist and compete in the brain according to their relative uncertainty. In this paper we propose a novel view in which a single Mixed Instrumental Controller produces both goal-directed and habitual behavior by flexibly balancing and combining model-based and model-free computations. The Mixed Instrumental Controller performs a cost-benefits analysis to decide whether to chose an action immediately based on the available "cached" value of actions (linked to model-free mechanisms) or to improve value estimation by mentally simulating the expected outcome values (linked to model-based mechanisms). Since mental simulation entails cognitive effort and increases the reward delay, it is activated only when the associated "Value of Information" exceeds its costs. The model proposes a method to compute the Value of Information, based on the uncertainty of action values and on the distance of alternative cached action values. Overall, the model by default chooses on the basis of lighter model-free estimates, and integrates them with costly model-based predictions only when useful. Mental simulation uses a sampling method to produce reward expectancies, which are used to update the cached value of one or more actions; in turn, this updated value is used for the choice. The key predictions of the model are tested in different settings of a double T-maze scenario. Results are discussed in relation with neurobiological evidence on the hippocampus - ventral striatum circuit in rodents, which has been linked to goal-directed spatial navigation.

Strengthening tpack: a broader notion of context and the use of teacher's narratives to reveal knowledge construction*

Abstract: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) as a framework to understand and foster teachers' knowledge for efficient technology integration has the value of unveiling new types of knowledg...

In defence of the value free ideal

Abstract: The ideal of value free science states that the justification of scientific findings should not be based on non-epistemic (eg moral or political) values It has been criticized on the grounds that scientists have to employ moral judgements in managing inductive risks The paper seeks to defuse this methodological critique Allegedly value-laden decisions can be systematically avoided, it argues, by making uncertainties explicit and articulating findings carefully Such careful uncertainty articulation, understood as a methodological strategy, is exemplified by the current practice of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society

Abstract: I. The Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, drawn up by a committee of governmental experts under the authority of the Steering Committee for the Cultural Heritage, was adopted by the Committee of Ministers at the 941st meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies on 13 October 2005. The Convention was opened for signature by the member states of the Council of Europe on 27 October 2005 at Faro.

Reclaiming Virtue Ethics for Economics

Abstract: contrast, virtue ethics —the study of moral character—has been an important strand in moral philosophy for literally thousands of years, but has received little strand in moral philosophy for literally thousands of years, but has received little attention from contemporary economists. That neglect has not been reciprocated. attention from contemporary economists. That neglect has not been reciprocated. A signifi cant body of philosophical work in virtue ethics is associated with a radical A signifi cant body of philosophical work in virtue ethics is associated with a radical critique of the market economy and of economics. Expressed crudely, the charge critique of the market economy and of economics. Expressed crudely, the charge sheet is this: The market depends on instrumental rationality and extrinsic motisheet is this: The market depends on instrumental rationality and extrinsic motivation; market interactions therefore fail to respect the internal value of human vation; market interactions therefore fail to respect the internal value of human practices and the intrinsic motivations of human actors; by using market exchange practices and the intrinsic motivations of human actors; by using market exchange as its central model, economics normalizes extrinsic motivation, not only in markets as its central model, economics normalizes extrinsic motivation, not only in markets but also (in its ventures into the territories of other social sciences) in social life but also (in its ventures into the territories of other social sciences) in social life more generally; therefore economics is complicit in an assault on virtue and on more generally; therefore economics is complicit in an assault on virtue and on human fl ourishing. We will argue that this critique is fl awed, both as a descriphuman fl ourishing. We will argue that this critique is fl awed, both as a description of how markets actually work and as a representation of how classical and tion of how markets actually work and as a representation of how classical and neo classical economists have understood the market. We will show how the market neo classical economists have understood the market. We will show how the market and economics can be defended against the critique from virtue ethics. and economics can be defended against the critique from virtue ethics. Crucially, our response to that critique will be constructed Crucially, our response to that critique will be constructed using the language and logic of virtue ethics. In this respect, it is fundamentally different from a response . In this respect, it is fundamentally different from a response that many economists would fi nd more natural—to point to the enormous benefi ts, that many economists would fi nd more natural—to point to the enormous benefi ts,

Using Technology to Increase Parent Involvement in Schools

Abstract: The importance of parent involvement in schools and its relationship to student achievement have been widely studied. Nevertheless, many principals and teachers report that lack of parent involvement continues to be an obstacle to increasing student achievement at school. The purpose of this study was to determine whether emerging technologies facilitate better parent-teacher communication and parent involvement. Data were collected through surveys and semi-structured focus group interviews to analyze the relationship between parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of student achievement when electronic communications are used between parents and school. The study revealed that parents and teachers both place a high value on proactive parent involvement. Because proactive involvement does not require parents to be physically at their children’s school, the question of how technology can be used to keep parents involved in their children’s academic lives becomes important. As access to technology continues to expand, the capabilities for connecting parents to schools will continue to grow. As schools invest in websites, phone calling systems, parent portals, online curriculum, and other types of technologies that connect schools to home, research needs to continue to focus on the effectiveness of these technologies to increase parent involvement.

Factors of learner–instructor interaction which predict perceived learning outcomes in online learning environment

Abstract: Interaction in the online learning environment has been regarded as one of the most critical elements that affect learning outcomes. This study examined what factors in learner–instructor interaction can predict the learner's outcomes in the online learning environment. Learners in K Online University participated by answering the survey, and data from 654 respondents were analysed for this study. Results showed that factors related to instructional interaction predicted perceived learning achievement and satisfaction better than factors related to social interaction. However, it was revealed that social interaction such as social intimacy could negatively affect perceived learning achievement and satisfaction. This study has value because it found factors under learner–instructor interaction which predict perceived learning achievement and satisfaction with empirical evidence.

How quick decisions illuminate moral character

Abstract: It has been suggested that people attend to others’ actions in the service of forming impressions of their underlying dispositions. If so, it follows that in considering others’ morally relevant actions, social perceivers should be responsive to accompanying cues that help illuminate actors’ underlying moral character. This article examines one relevant cue that can characterize any decision process: the speed with which the decision is made. Two experiments show that actors who make an immoral decision quickly (vs. slowly) are evaluated more negatively. In contrast, actors who arrive at a moral decision quickly (vs. slowly) receive particularly positive moral character evaluations. Quick decisions carry this signal value because they are assumed to reflect certainty in the decision (Experiments 1 and 2), which in turn signals that more unambiguous motives drove the behavior (Experiment 2), which in turn explains the more polarized moral character evaluations. Implications for moral psychology and the law are discussed.

The Role of Social Capital in the Experiences of Hispanic Women Engineering Majors

Abstract: Background Women and minorities remain significantly underrepresented in the undergraduate engineering disciplines despite decades-long recruitment and retention efforts. As United States demographics shift and the nation continues to recognize the value of workplace diversity, engineering education stakeholders continue to seek ways to increase participation of women and minority students. Purpose Our research examines the following question: For Hispanic women whose parents have limited educational attainment, what available sources of potential social capital do they identify, and by what means do they access and activate these resources in their decisions to select and persist in engineering as a college major? We hope to provide insights for United States institutions that serve Hispanic students, as well as those seeking to diversify their student body. Design/method Utilizing Lin's network theory of social capital as a framework, we employed semi-structured interviews in a multiple case study research methodology, taking a constructivist epistemological view. Results Three major findings are that (1) lack of available family social capital was supplemented mostly by school personnel; (2) delayed recognition or identification of available resources slowed access and activation of resources, leading to difficult university transitions; and (3) if accessed and activated, peer groups and institutional support systems provided sources of social capital. Conclusions Even single instances or weak ties can be effective in bridging gaps in engineering-related social capital. Facilitating opportunities for students to develop sustained social capital may have potential to attract and retain underrepresented students in engineering.

Religion without God

Abstract: In his last book, Ronald Dworkin addresses questions that men and women have asked through the ages: What is religion and what is God's place in it? What is death and what is immortality? Based on the 2011 Einstein Lectures, "Religion without God "is inspired by remarks Einstein made that if religion consists of awe toward mysteries which "manifest themselves in the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, and which our dull faculties can comprehend only in the most primitive forms," then, he, Einstein, was a religious person.Dworkin joins Einstein's sense of cosmic mystery and beauty to the claim that value is objective, independent of mind, and immanent in the world. He rejects the metaphysics of naturalism--that nothing is real except what can be studied by the natural sciences. Belief in God is one manifestation of this deeper worldview, but not the only one. The conviction that God underwrites value presupposes a prior commitment to the independent reality of that value--a commitment that is available to nonbelievers as well. So theists share a commitment with some atheists that is more fundamental than what divides them. Freedom of religion should flow not from a respect for belief in God but from the right to ethical independence.Dworkin hoped that this short book would contribute to rational conversation and the softening of religious fear and hatred. "Religion without God "is the work of a humanist who recognized both the possibilities and limitations of humanity.