CSTS Science, Technology and Society

Chapter 8

The Good Life

A. Desired Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

 Examine what is meant by a good life

 Identify how humans attempt to attain what is deemed to be a good life
 Recognize possibilities available to human being to attain the good life.

B. Introduction

Long before the word “Science” has been coined, in Ancient Greece, the need to understand
the world and reality was associated with the need to understand life oneself and the good life.
While for Plato, the means of understanding oneself and the things in this world is parallel with
getting into what really make the soul flourish.

In attempt to study and understand reality together with the external world, man must seek to
understand himself too. Aristotle on this matter gave a definitive distinction between theoretical
(logic, biology, physics, metaphysics) and practical sciences (ethics and politics). Whereas, “truth”
is the aim of theoretical sciences and “good” for the practical ones.

Every attempt to know is connected to some way in attempt to find good; one must find truth
about what the good is before one can even try to locate which is good.

In this lesson, we endeavor to go back a little answer to these questions:

What does it really mean to live a good life? What qualifies a good existence?

Granting understanding on this, human assumed to be able to reconcile the existential needs
as beings and science as a tool to maneuver around the world.

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C. Input

Aristotle and How We All Aspire for a Good Life

It is interesting to note that the first philosopher, who approached the problem of reality
from a "scientific" lens as we know now, is also the first thinker who dabbled into the complex
problematization of the end goal of life: happiness. This man is none other than Aristotle.

Compared to his teacher and predecessor, Plato, Aristotle embarked on a different approach
in figuring out reality. In contrast to Plato who thought that things in this world are not real and
are only copies of the real in the world of forms, Aristotle puts everything back to the ground in
claiming that this world is all there is to it and that this world is the only reality we can all access.

Plato Aristotle
 Change is so perplexing that it can only  There is no reality over and above what
make sense if there are two realities: the the senses can perceive, it is only by
world of forms and the world of matter observation of the external world that one
 Change is a process and as a can truly understand what reality all is
phenomenon that happens in the world, about.
that in fact, is constant.  Change is a process that is inherent in
 Claims that despite the reality of things; all started as potentialities and
change, things remained, and they retain move toward actualities. Every action that
their ultimate “whatness”. Reality is full emanates from a human person is a
of these seemingly contrasting function of the purpose (telos) that the
manifestations of change and person has.
permanence.  Every human person aspires for an end,
 World of matter – things are changing and happiness is these all and end all of
and impermanent everything. People may not realize but the
 World of forms – the entities are only end goal of everything is happiness.
copies of the ideal and the models, and
the forms are the real entities.

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Happiness as the Goal of a Good Life

In the eighteenth century, John Stuart Mill declared the Greatest Happiness Principle by
saying that an action is right as far as it maximizes the attainment of happiness for the greatest
number of people. At a time when people were skeptical about claims on the metaphysical, people
could not make sense of the human flourishing that Aristotle talked about in the days of old. Mill
said that individual happiness of an individual should be prioritized and collectively dictates the
kind of action that should be endorsed. Consider the pronouncements against mining. When an
action benefits the greatest number of people, said action is deemed ethical. Does mining benefit
rather than hurt the majority? Does it offer more benefits rather than disadvantages? Does mining
result in more people getting happy rather than sad? If the answers to the said questions are in the
affirmative, then the said action, mining, is deemed ethical.

The ethical is, of course, meant to lead us to the good and happy life. Through the ages, as
has been expounded in the previous chapters, man has constantly struggled with the external world
in order to reach human flourishing. History has given birth to different schools of thought, all of
which aim for the good and happy life.

Materialism

The first materialists were the atomists in Ancient Greece, Democritus and Leucippus led a
school whose primary belief is that the world is made up of and is controlled by the tiny indivisible
units in the world called atomos or seeds. For Democritus and his disciples, the world, including
human beings, is made up of matter. There is no need to posit immaterial entities as sources of
purpose. Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world. As such, only
material entities matter. In terms of human flourishing, matter is what makes us attain happiness.
We see this at work with most people who are clinging on to material wealth as the primary source
of the meaning of their existence.

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Hedonism

The hedonists, for their part, see the end goal of life in acquiring pleasure. Pleasure has always
been the priority of hedonists. For them, life is about obtaining and indulging in pleasure because
life is limited. The mantra of this school of thought is the famous, "Eat, drink, and be merry for
tomorrow we die." Led by Epicurus, this school of thought also does not buy any notion of afterlife
just like the materialists.

Stoicism

Another school of thought led by Epicurus, the stoics espoused the idea that to generate
happiness, one must learn to distance oneself and be apathetic. The original term, apatheia,
precisely means to be indifferent. For the stoics, happiness can only be attained by a careful
practice of apathy. We should, in this worldview, adopt the fact that some things are not within
our control. The sooner we realize this, the happier we can become.

Theism

Most people find the meaning of their lives using God as a fulcrum of their existence. The
Philippines, as a predominantly Catholic country, is witness to how people base their life goals on
beliefs that hinged on some form of supernatural reality called heaven. The ultimate basis of
happiness for theists is the communion with God. The world where we are in is only just a
temporary reality where we have to maneuver around while waiting •for the ultimate return to the
hands of God.

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Humanism

Humanism as another school of thought espouses the freedom of man to carve his own
destiny and to legislate his own laws, free from the shackles of a God that monitors and controls.
For humanists, man is literally the captain of his own ship. Inspired by the enlightenment in
seventeenth century, humanists see themselves not merely as stewards of the creation but as
individuals who are in control of themselves and the world outside them. This is the spirit of most
scientists who thought that the world is a place and space for freely unearthing the world in seeking
for ways on how to improve the lives of its inhabitants.

As a result of the motivation of the humanist current, scientists eventually turned to technology
in order to ease the difficulty of life as illustrated in the previous lessons. Scientists of today
meanwhile are ready more sophisticated attempts at altering the world for the benefit of humanity.
Some people now are willing to tamper with time and space in the name of technology. Social
media, as an example, has been so far a very effective way of employing technology in purging
time and space. Not very long ago, communication between two people from two continents in the
planet will involve months of waiting for a mail to arrive. Seeing each other real time while talking
was virtually impossible. Now, communication between two people wherever they are, is not just
possible but easy. The Internet and smart phones made real time communication possible not just
between two people, but even with multiple communication people simultaneously.

Technology allowed is to tinker with our sexuality. Biologically male individuals can now
undergo medical operation if they so wish for sexual reassignment. Breast implant are now
available that can be done with relative convenience if anyone wishes to have one. Hormones may
also be injected in order to alter the sexual chemicals in the body.

Whether or not we agree with these technological advancements, these are all undertaken in
the hopes of attaining the good life. The balance however, between the good life, ethics, and
technology has be attained.

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D. Reference(s)

• Janice Patria Javier, et al (2018), Science, Technology and Society Rex Book Store.

Prepared by:

ENGR. MAY B. CHAN

Asst. Prof. I
Process

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