MODULE 4
THE HUMAN PERSON FLOURISHING IN TERMS OF
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to:
• Define human flourishing.
• Interview different people about human flourishing.
• Cite the importance of Human flourishing.
INTRODUCTION
Every living creature is meant to become what it is meant to be. The caterpillar is meant to
become a beautiful butterfly; a small seed into a full grown herb, bush or tree; and a human
baby into a mature person, the person “who is fully alive, the glory of God” -St. Irenaeus.
As we grow and develop there are different factors that affect us, there are different
questions that need to be answered and there are steps and actions that need to be
undertaken. Flourishing is the highest good of human attempt to achieve his/her goal. It is
a success as a human being when he/she achieve his/her goal. It is a success as a human
being when he/she achieved it for the betterment of his/her life.
The best life is one of excellent human activity. “Eudaimonia”, literally “good spirited” is a
term connected by renowned Greek Philosopher Aristotle (385-323 B.C.) to describe the
peak of human’s happiness that can be attained. The big question is “How?”. How will you
achieve your flourishing?
ARISTOTLE ASKS
Aristotle’s human flourishing arises as a product of different factors such as phronesis,
friendship, wealth and power. The ancient Greek society believed that for the people to
achieve the true meaning of happiness these qualities should be acquired, which in effect
allow them to join in the greater notion of what we call the good.
For Aristotle, the good is what is good for purposeful and goal directed entities. He
defines the good proper to human beings as the activities in which the life functions specific
to human beings are most fully realized. For Aristotle, the good of each species is finality
existing to that species. A person’s nature as a human being provides him with guidance
and respect to how he should live his life.
A fundamental fact of human nature is the existence of individual human beings each with
his own rational mind and free will. The highest or most general good to which all individuals
should aim is to live happily, successfully, and well. This is done through the active exercise
of a person’s distinctive capacity, rationality, as he/she engages in activities to the degree
appropriate to the person in the context of his/her own identity as human being.
pg. 1 RYAN C. ACOPIADO/SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
One’s own life is the only life that a person must live. It follows that, for Aristotle, the “good”
is what is objectively good for a person. Aristotle’s eudamonia is formally egoistic in that a
person’s normative reason for choosing actions stems from the idea that she/he must
pursue his/her own good flourishing. Because self-interest of the acting person. Good
means “good for” the individual moral agent. Egoism is an integral part of Aristotle’s ethics.
In his ethical writings, Aristotle ethical writings, Aristotle endorses egoism, rationality, and
the value of life. He insisted that the key idea in ethics is a human individual’s own personal
happiness and well-being. Each person is responsible for his/her own character. According
to Aristotle, each person has natural obligation to achieve, become, and make something
of himself/herself by pursuing his/her true ends and goals in life. Each person should be
concerned with the “best that is within him/her and with the most accomplished and self-
sufficient success and excellence.
People found means to live more comfortably, explore more places, develop more
products, and make more money, and then the cycle is just repeating to suffice their
happiness. In the beginning, early people relied on animals for their transportation they
relied on stones and spears to hunt food; they used skin animals to protect their skin and
used it as clothes; they used stones to make flame and lastly; they just lived in a cave as
their shelter.
As the time went by there was a big change in the way the people lived before and the way
the people live today. Development allowed them to make grander and more sophisticated
machines to aid them their endeavor that eventually led to space exploration, medicine
innovations, and ventures of life after death. Our concept of human flourishing today proves
to be different from what Aristotle originally perceived. Humans of today are expected to
become a “man of the world”.
The person today is supposed to build himself/herself in a global neighborhood, working
side by side among institutions and different governments to be able to reach common
goal. Competition as a means of survival has become outdated; cooperation and
coordination among individuals are the new trend.
pg. 2 RYAN C. ACOPIADO/SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
MODULE 4
ASSESSMENT TASK
1. Aristotle tries to begin with common sense. He doesn’t
just want to build theories in thin air that have no
connection to reality. He just collect different
opinions from different people about a certain topic.
For your assessment, Ask the Opinion of 15 different
people about the following questions:
a. What is happiness?
b. What is/are goal/s in life?
c. How can you achieve your goal/s?
d. Who are the people you need to achieve your goal/s with?
Gather all the answers of the respondents. What are
the top 3 most frequent answer?
a. What is happiness?
1.
2.
3.
b. What is/are goal/s in life?
1.
2.
3.
c. How can you achieve your goal/s?
1.
2.
3.
d. Who are the people you need to achieve your
goal/s with?
1.
2.
3.
2. Do the following to ensure mastery of the big ideas
presented in this module.
a. Meaning of human flourishing
__________________________
b. How will you achieve human flourishing?
__________________________
pg. 3 RYAN C. ACOPIADO/SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY