STAS Midterm Reviewer

Science and Technology must be examined for their

Chapter 7 and 8: Human Flourishing in Science and greater impact on humanity as a whole.
Technology
SELECTED VIEWS ON TECHNOLOGY
Flourishing - a state where people experience
positive emotions, positive psychological functioning ARISTOTELIANISM
and positive social functioning, most of the time,"  Views technology as basically a means to an end
living "within an optimal range of human functioning."  Organizing of techniques in order to meet the
demand that is posed by humans
Human Flourishing  Technology will be judge as either good or bad
- an effort to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment based on the value given to the product based on
within the context of a larger community of individuals, its use and effect to the society
each with the right to pursue his or her own such
efforts. TECHNOLOGICAL PESSIMISM
- involves the rational use of one's individual human  Extremely supported by French philosopher
potentialities, including talents, abilities, and virtues in Jacques Ellul
the pursuit of his freely and rationally chosen values  Technology is progressive and beneficial in many
and goals. ways, it is also doubtful in many ways
 A mean to an end but with this view, it has
Human civilizations and the development of become a way of life
science and technology.
Ellul’s pessimistic arguments are:
 Human person as both the bearer and 1. Technological progress has a price,
beneficiary of science and technology. 2. creates more problems,
3. creates damaging effects, and
 bearer – a person or thing that carries or holds 4. creates unpredictable devastating effects.
something.
TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIMISM
 Beneficiary  Strongly supported by technologists and
engineers and people who believe that
 Human flourishes and finds meaning in the world technology can alleviate all the difficulties and
that he/she builds. provide solutions for problems with technology
still the solution
 Human may unconsciously acquire, consume, or
destroy what the world has to offer. EXISTENTIALISM
 The main concern to this view is the existence or
Science and Technology - must be treated as part the mode of being someone or something which
of human life that needs reflective and meditative is governed by the norm of authenticity
thinking.  Supported by Martin Heidegger

Reflective Thinking - means taking the bigger TECHNOLOGY AS A MODE OF REVEALING

picture and understanding all of its consequences.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER
Meditative Thinking - kind of thinking that thinks the  A German philosopher and a seminal thinker in
truth of being, that belongs to being and listens to it. the Continental tradition of philosophy.
 Widely acknowledged to be one of the most
Eudaimonia original and important philosophers of the 20th
 Greek words “eu” – “good” and “daemon” – century.
“spirit”
 A state of having a good indwelling spirit or being HEIDEGGER’S VIEW ON TECHNOLOGY
in a contented state.  He strongly opposes the view that technology is
 Right actions that result in the well-being of an “a means to an end” or “a human activity.”
individual
 These two approaches, which he calls,  inaccessible for human beings. As soon as we
respectively, the “instrumental” and perceive or try to understand it, it is not ‘in itself’
“anthropological” definitions, are indeed anymore, but ‘reality for us.’
“correct”, but do not go deep enough; as he
says, they are not yet “true.” What, then, is technology, if it is neither a means
 Heidegger points out, technological objects are to an end nor a human activity?
means for ends, and are built and operated by
human beings, but the essence of technology is  Technology, according to Heidegger must be
something else entirely. understood as “a way of revealing” (Heidegger
 Since the essence of a tree is not itself a tree, he 1977, 12).
points out, so the essence of technology is not  Revealing is his translation of the Greek word
anything technological. alètheuein, which means ‘to discover’ – to
uncover what was covered over. Related to this
Bringing-Forth verb is the independent noun alètheia, which is
 Occasion - to make present (not the same as to usually translated as “truth,” though Heidegger
cause) insists that a more adequate translation would
 Poiesis - bringing-forth, root word of poetry be “un- concealment.”
 “Technology and art both bringing-forth”
How can technology be ‘a way of revealing’?
Aristotle’s Four Causes 1. What does this have to do with technology?
1. causa materialis - material cause 2. What does Heidegger mean when he says that
2. causa formalis - formal cause technology is “a way of revealing”?
3. causa finalis - final purpose
4. causa eficiens - effective cause, maker  everything we perceive or think of or interact with
“emerges out of concealment into
Revealing unconcealment,
 Aletheia - revealing, unveiling, truth  by entering into a particular relation with reality,
 Technology is a way of revealing reality is ‘revealed’ in a specific way.
 “Technology comes to presence in the realm  technology is the way of revealing that
where revealing and unconcealment take place” characterizes our time.
 technology embodies a specific way of revealing
Challenging the world, a revealing in which humans take
power over reality.
Herausfordern - challenging  While the ancient Greeks experienced the
• Type of revealing ‘making’ of something as ‘helping something to
• inherent of modern technology, demand that come into being’ – as Heidegger explains that
nature supply energy modern technology is rather a ‘forcing into being’.
 Technology reveals the world as raw material,
Hydroelectric plant - challenging to unlock power in available for production and manipulation.
nature
WHY IS TECHNOLOGY NOT A HUMAN
Windmill - old technology does not challenge ACTIVITY?
 According to Heidegger, there is something
What is reality? wrong with the modern, technological
culture we live in today. In our ‘age of
 according to Heidegger, it is not given the same technology’ reality can only be present as a
way in all times and all cultures (Seubold 1986, raw material (as a ‘standing reserve’). This
35-6). state of affairs has not been brought about
 not something absolute that human beings can by humans; the technological way of
ever know once and for all revealing was not chosen by humans.
 is relative in the most literal sense of the word – it  Rather, our understanding of the world - our
exists only in relations. understanding of ‘being’, of what it means
‘to be’ - develops through the ages. In our
time ‘being’ has the character of a
 technological ‘framework’, from which • Life is short, thus one should indulge in pleasures
humans approach the world in a controlling — eat, drink, and enjoy life because tomorrow is
and dominating way. our last day.
 Every attempt to climb out of technology
throws us back in. The only way out for STOICISM
Heidegger is “the will not to will”. ▪ Another school of thought led by Epicurus.
 We need to open up the possibility of relying ▪ The stoics espoused the idea that to generate
on technologies while not becoming happiness, one must learn to distance oneself
enslaved to them and seeing them as and be apathetic.
manifestations of an understanding of being. ▪ The path to happiness for humans is found in
accepting this moment as it presents itself, by not
Chapter 9: The Good Life allowing ourselves to be controlled by our desire
for pleasure, or our fear of pain.
What is a Good Life?
THEISM
 People have different ideas of what constitutes • The belief in the existence of the Supreme Being
the good life. or Deities
 Wrong pursuits may lead to tragic
• Using God as the originator of their existence,
consequences.
they discover the purpose of their life.
 Correct pursuits may lead to flourishing.
HUMANISM
In Aristotelean view, “the understandability of the
good is based on the idea of what is good for the • International Humanist and Ethical Union
specific entity under consideration”. • A school of thought espouses the freedom of
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 2:2 man to carve his own destiny and to legislate his
All human activities aim at some good. own laws, free from the shackles of a God that
Every art and human inquiry, and similarly every monitors and controls.
action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good;
and for this reason the good has been rightly
declared as that at which all things aim.

The 4 Pillars of The Good Life

1. Health
2. Wealth
3. Love
4. Happiness Chapter 10 and 11: When Technology and Humanity
The Golden Rule: Cross
Confucius: “What you do not want done to yourself,
do not do to others.” Humanity: R. Coupland (2003)
 Collective existence of all human
MATERIALISM  An attitude, a morality, or sentiment of good will
• Founded by Leucippus and Democritus toward fellow humans
• A form of philosophical monism which holds that
Morality and sentiment – refers to the spirit in which
matter is the fundamental substance in nature,
certain acts and planned and committed
and that all things, including mental aspects and
Collective existence – refers to an evolved biological
consciousness are results of material
and social phenomenon that scientists from multiple
interactions.
from multiple disciplines have studied extensively.
HEDONISM
“It has become appallingly obvious that
• Is a school of thought that argues that the pursuit technology has exceeded our humanity.” – Albert
of pleasure and intrinsic goods are the primary Einstein
or most important goals of human life.
Introduction
• Science and technology are neither static nor b. Humanoid
stagnant c. Autonomous
• As observed by Kasun (1988) d. Teleoperated
– “The types of quantities of resources e. Augmenting
change continually. Likewise, the ability f. Nanotechnology
of given areas to support life doesn’t g. Artificial Intelligence
remain constant…”  Human and robot interaction
– A country may develop despite having  Potential risks of robotics to society
scarce natural resources. Trough o Devaluation of humanity
science and technology, you can o Decrease in demand of human
discover, manage and produce enough labor
resources to supply the needs of the o High cost of creation
growing population o Ethical issues
• Food production has reportedly increased o Social isolation
considerably faster than population in recent o Environmental problems
decades even in the poorest countries  In public health, sanitation was no longer a
– E.g: Rice and wheat production in India big pain in engineers: the invention of the
Population by 2013 is 1.252 billion flush toilet at the end of the 18th century.
People became less susceptible to diseases
TRADE such as malaria, dengue fever, small pox,
• Facilitated humanity’s need to keep up with the etc.
growing demand from growing populations by
enabling redistribution in a systematic way. The ill effects of technology
• Man shifted from being the one adapting to his 1. Despite of the advances in the technology of
environment to making his environment adapt to food production, many countries continue to
his needs. suffer from food shortages
• 2. Poor information distribution.
Progress of Technology 3. Labor became cheap and laborers got
• Technology helps bring about the “good life” that exploited
you hope and aim for: 4. Crimes increased
Technology in food production 5. Nuclear weapons were developed
 It has saved many nations from starvation. In 6. Misuse of computers
Philippines, the International Rice Research 7. Depletion of the ozone layer
Institute of the University of the Philippines
(IRRI-UPLB) had developed two new Factors that have influenced the development of
varieties of rice the IR5 and IR8, which Science and Technology in the Modern times
yielded 15 times the average yield of
traditional varieties UNITED KINGDOM
• Genetically Modified Organisms • The British government helped greatly in creating
• In the humanities, technology has played the conditions favourable to industrialization
part of a supplier of printed books and similar • Laws protected businesses and helped them
scholarly materials which have had a expand
tremendous impact in literary criticism, • Its general political climate was conductive for the
historiography and library science Industrial Revolution
• In pedagogic arts, computer-aided education
is now available worldwide. UNITED STATES
• Robotics • The federal government of the US respond more
• Interface of computer science and quickly in supporting projects and innovations in
engineering the field of science and technology
• Conception, design, manufacture, • In the 20th century, state universities became
and operations major centres of science, they made money
• Types: available for laboratories, instruction and
a. Pre-programmed scientific research
JAPAN
• Japan’s supportive government, its very
organized social and political structures, and
competent civil service
• It pumped funds into agriculture and
transportation
• Its government also supported industries that
helped build military strength. A government-
financed factory turned out weapons and
munitions for Japan’s growing army and navy
• They established a comprehensive educational
system through generous fund allocation for
education
• Manpower training, especially in the technical
fields

SOUTH KOREA
• South Korea transformed itself from a poor,
agrarian society to one of the world’s most highly
industrialized nations
• Its government promoted industrialization by
creating institute that spearheaded technological
advancement
• Its institutions trained future scientists,
technicians and engineers

NORTH KOREA
• North Korea’s communist type of government
made its citizen cautious, and this basically
created a barrier to the new ideas and
technologies being experienced all over the world
• They focused on military technologies

RUSSIA

• The Soviet government has strongly supported

science and technology
• Science and politics are closely interwoven

“Technology should improve your life, not become

your life.” – Billy Cox