Science, Technology and Society

COURSE MODULE COURSE UNIT Session

5 2 2

The Human Person flourishing in terms of Science and Technology

 Read course and unit objectives

 Read study guide prior to class attendance
 Read required learning resources; refer to unit
terminologies for jargons
 Proactively participate in classroom discussions
 Participate in weekly discussion board (Canvas)
 Answer and submit course unit tasks

At the end of this unit, the students are expected to:

1. Explain modern technology and its role in human flourishing
2. Discuss the Question Concerning Technology.
3. Understand the relationship of science and technology in human flourishing.

Heidegger, Martin (1977).The Question Concerning Technology.

HUMAN FLOURISHING IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

PHILOSOPHY- The study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence,
knowledge, values, reason, mind and language.

Branches of Philosophy
1. Natural Philosophy
2. Moral Philosophy-
3. Metaphysical philosophy
4.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976)
 German philosopher whose work is associated with phenomology and existentialism.
 His ideas have exerted influence on the development of contemporary European philosophy.
 His best-known work is Being and Time (1927). He gave a very impressive analysis of human
existence, the prominence of the important themes of existentialism like care, anxiety, guilt and
above all death is brought out here.
 He begins “The Question Concerning Technology” by examining the relationship between
human and technology, a relationship Heidegger calls a free relationship. If this relationship is
free, it opens our human existence to the essence of technology”. This essence of technology,
however, has nothing to do with technology. Rather, as Heidegger suggests, ‘The essence of a
thing is considered to be what the thing is.”
 Heidegger examines two definitions of technology. Firstly, he offers that “Technology is a
means to an end”(Instrumental definition). Secondly, he proposes that “Technology is a human
activity (Anthropological definition).

The Question Concerning Technology

• 1. Heidegger begins by portraying his investigation of technology as the building of a path.

• 2. He examines the common understanding of technology as a neutral instrument under the
control of humans.
• He proposes to get to the true sense via the correct sense
• 3. He analyses the notion of instrumentality to reach the truth or the essence of technology- it
is traced to causality.
• 4. Technology is a very particular kind of revealing to, and the description articulates the key
terms of Heidegger’s philosophy of technology: Modern technology challenges-forth nature to
yield treasures to humans; technology sets-upon (positions and orders) the yields of nature so
that they are available and of humans, becoming part of the standing reserve.
• 5.He discusses the relation of modern science to the essence of technology-
• He claims for the sciences the aggressive approach to nature that goes well with technology,
but poorly with science.
 • 6. The enframing of technology is destiny.
• Destiny is neither an inevitable fate that descends on humanity nor the result of human willing.
• Disclosure of destiny and human freedom are one and the same.
• 7. There is a twofold danger to destiny.
• One is the danger that human being reduces itself to standing reserve and in so appearing to
have taken total control encounters nothing any more.
• The other is the danger that the disclosure of the enframing forecloses every other
dispensation and conceals that too is a disclosure.
• 8. Still the enframing is a disclosure. It involves human being, therefore harbors the possibility
of saving power.

Doctrine of causality
1. Causa materialis- the material, the matter out of which an object is made.
2. Causa formalis-the form, the shape into which the material enters.
3. Causa efficiens- which brings about the effect that is finished
4. Causa finalis- end

Bringing Forth- making something

 The bringing forth-poesis-which underlies causality is a bringing out of concealment.

 The revealing is what the Greeks call truth-Aletheia- means unhiddedness or disclosure.
 Technology brings forth as well , and it is a revealing.
 This is seen in the way the Greeks understood techne, which encompasses not only craft, but
other acts of the mind and poetry.
 Heidegger characterizes modern technology as a challenging forth- very aggressive in its
activity.
 With modern technology, revealing never comes to an end.
 The revealing always happens on our own terms as everything is on demand.
 He also described modern technology as the age of switches, standing reserve and stockpiling
for its own sake.
Example:
1. Volcanic eruption- challenging forth
2. Coral bleaching-challenging forth
3. Planting trees- bringing forth
4. Mining- challenging forth
5. Farming- bringing forth

Questioning as the Piety of Thought

 Piety means obedience and submission.
 One builds a way towards knowing the truth who he/ she is as a being in this world.
  Thus we shall never experience our relationship to the essence of technology so long as we
merely represent and pursue the technological, put up with it, or evade it. Everywhere we
remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we
are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for
this conception of it, to which today we particularly like to pay homage, makes us utterly blind
to the essence of technology (1977,p1)
 ENFRAMING: WAY OF REVEALING IN MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Calculative thinking
 One orders and puts a system to nature so it can be understood better and controlled
Meditative thinking
 One lets nature reveal itself to him/ her without forcing it.

1. Technology as a Mode of Revealing

2. Technology as Poesis: Applicable to Modern Technology
3. Questioning as the Piety of Thought
4. Enframing: A way of Revealing in Modern Technology
5. Human Person Swallowed by Technology
6. Art as a Way out of Enframing

Aletheia means unhiddenness or disclosure

Poesis is defined as bringing forth.
Techne is the root of technology
Piety is associated with being religious.

McNamara, J. (2011). A return to the Beginning in Stellar Origins, Human Ways.

Study Questions
Read the article, The Question Concerning Technology. Answer the following questions.

Questions:

1. What do you think constitutes human flourishing?

2. How is the human person revealed in modern technology?

McNamara, DJ., VAlverde VM, Beleno III, R. Science, technology

and Society.C&E Publishing Inc. 2018. Chapter 4 pp. 52-58. ISBN:
978-971-98-0935-7
The Question Concerning Technology. en.m.wikipedia.org
The Technological view of the world of Martin Heidegger.
FutureLearn Philosophy of Technology and Design. University of
Twente. https://.www.futurelearn.com
Christopher Cocchiarella. Heidegger on the essence of
Technology: What is technology, really? March 17, 2019.Mindful
Technics A Technology Education Site and Blog for Geeks.
https://mindultechnics.com