Institute for Science and Human Values

The Institute for Science and Human Values (ISHV) is a non-profit organization dedicated to "the enhancement of human values and scientific inquiry" through educational programs, publications, and conferences.
History
Paul Kurtz conceived of ISHV in 2009 as a branch of The Center for Inquiry, an umbrella group he established in 1991. However, having been "shorn of all effective authority," at CFI and related groups that he had founded, Kurtz chaired the inagural meeting of ISHV as an independent organization on June 27, 2010. ISHV is a continuing outlet for his vision of Neo-Humanism, which he described in detail in the Neo-Humanist Statement of Secular Principles and Values, signed by notable humanists including Steven Pinker, Patricia Schroeder, E. O. Wilson and Ann Druyan.
Explaining why he sought to establish yet another secularist organization in an already-splintered movement, Kurtz wrote, "I wish to take the time now to deal with a vital question that needs to be addressed by the Center for Inquiry, and I believe that it should be at the top of the agenda for the future. Here I am talking about the need to apply reason and science to human values. Unfortunately, the major emphasis of the Center had been on criticism of religious and paranormal claims--that is surely a key part of the agenda. But this has led to the neglect of another essential part of the vision that first inspired the creation of the Center for Inquiry; and that is the application of science and reason to ethical questions. The key question is whether secularists are able to develop secular ethical values that instill meaning and provide some basis for moral integrity."
Kurtz's alignment toward free thought, atheism, and rationalism on the one hand and humanistic ethics on the other was evident as early as 1989 when he expounded the basics of his philosophy in an article for Free Inquiry. Kurtz wrote, "There is a strong free thought, atheistic, and rationalistic aspect of humanism that should not, in my judgement, be muted," and continued further on, "Thus a vital component of secular humanism is criticism, not only of the sacred cows of the prevailing religious orthodoxies but also of other irrational claims made in the public forum."
"But," he wrote in the same article, "to advance the frontiers of a new eupraxsophy requires that we go beyond negative criticism and provide positive alternatives. Atheism has failed in part because it has been primarily destructive. It seeks to shatter false idols that men and women worship, to expose falsity and hypocrisy; but it has not supplanted the old beliefs with positive options. It has not satisfied the hunger for imagination and poetry."
He also wrote, foreshadowing his motivations for establishing ISHV, "If humanism is to have any long-range impact on society, it must cultivate moral awareness by means of ethical education."
Activities

The Developing Healthy Values workshop held in Tampa, Florda in May 2011 featured Dale McGowan and other experts on helping educators and parents to help students develop healthy morals and values.
Neuroscience and Neuroethics: Considering Nature, Nurture, and Norms held at The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia in March 2012 featured world-renowned neuroscience experts including Patricia Churchland, Eric Racine, and Gregory Berns discussing "how neuroscience inform contemporary discussions about human nature, the human condition, and human relationships," and "what the neurosciences provide to such discussion - and the actions that arise from them - in the next decades."
The Human Prospect and the Fate of Our Planetary Civilization symposium is scheduled for April 2013 at Columbia University , featuring Rebecca Goldstein, Philip Kitcher, Toni Van Pelt, and others speaking on "science, humanism, ethics, and the task before us."
ISHV has also played a role in international humanism, sending representatives to the January 2012 UNESCO conference "A New Humanism for the 21st Century" in Paris, the Society of Ontario Freethinkers' symposium "Evolving Beyond God: Why Africa Matters," and "the first atheists and agnostics convention in south Asia," sponsored by The Philipine Atheists and Agnostics Society in Manila in 2012.
The Human Prospect
Paul Kurtz founded ISHV's triannual journal The Human Prospect: A Neo-Humanist Perspective, edited by Norm Allen Jr., in early 2011. It features academic articles, interviews, film reviews, and other magazine-style features. Contributers include Kurtz, R. Joseph Hoffmann, , Frans de Waal, and John P. Anton, and interviewees have included Sikivu Hutchinson and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Kurtz was editor-in-chief of The Human Prospect until his death.

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