THE HUMAN FLOURISHING IN

S C I E N C E A N D T E C H N O LO GY
MODULE 9

PREPARED BY: MARIA JORDANA A. OLANO. MSCI, BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, XAVIER UNIVERSITY, CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. Analyze the human condition in order to deeply reflect and express

philosophical ramifications that are meaningful to the student as a part
of society
 ❑ Read this module and the supplement on

CHECKLIST CS Lewis and Hickel.

OF ❑ Watch the supplement videos.
ACTIVITIES ❑ Complete the task assignments of this module
and the supplement.
M O D U L E D U R AT I O N
AND DEADLINES:
YOU HAVE UNTIL

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

TO ACCOMPLISH ALL THE

ASSIGNED OUTPUT FOR THIS
MODULE.
THE QUESTION
CONCERNING
T E C H N O LO GY

BY MARTIN HEIDEGGER
 A SHORT
BACKGROUND
• September 1889-May 1076
• A German philosopher and “Father of Existential
Phenomenology”
• Author of “Sein und Zeit” or “Being and Time”
 1. Technology as a Mode of Revealing
MAIN 2. Technology as Poeisis: Applicable to Modern
CONCEPTS Technology?
T H AT W E 3. Enframing: A Way of Revealing in Modern
WILL Technology

EXPLORE: 4. Questioning as the Piety of Thought

5. The Human Person Swallowed by Technology
1 . T E C H N OLO GY
AS A MODE OF
REVEALING
 WH AT D O WE A practical
A means to an A product of
KNOW ABOUT application of
end human activity
science.
TECHNOLOGY?
 WE THEN
SHOULD ASK, • What is the commonality that all
W H AT I S
TECHNOLOGY’ technology share?
S ESSENCE?
 TECHN OLOGY
IS

I N ST R U M E N TA L & ANTHROPOLOGICAL
A MEANS TO AN END A HUMAN ACTIVITY

Wherever there is instrumentality,

there is causality
 ARISTOTLE’S CONCEPTION OF THE
FOUR CAUSES WAS MECHANICAL.

1. Causa materialis 4. Causa finalis

2. Causa formalis
3. Causa efficiens
What is revealed? A table. “unconcealment” or bringing forth
TE CH N OLOGY I S A WAY OF BR I N G I N G
FORTH, MAKING SOMETHING.

What is brought forth is the truth

Therefore

TE CH N O LO GY I S A P OI E S I S TH AT
DISCLOSES OR REVEALS THE TRUTH
A L E T H E I A – T R U T H , D I S C L O S U R E , U N C O N C E A L E D N E S S

Ancient Greek concepts:

Poiesis – poetry + Techne – skill, art, or craft
 HOWEVER
…

WE MUST ASK

IS THIS IDEA OF TECHNOLOGY

APPLICABLE TO MODERN
TECHNOLOGY?
 • We go farther away from
MODERN
poiesis and lean more
TECHNOLOGY
towards techne
MODERN
T E C H N O LO GY
Challenges forth

Very aggressive in its activity

Expedites disclosure of nature

Stores that which is extracted from nature

Age of switches

Standing Reserve

Stockpiling for its own sake

WE USE AND
MANIPULATE THE
RESOURCES THAT
NATURE GIVES TO US.
TO MANUFACTURE
TO CREATE
TO REVEAL
TO EXPLOIT

WE WANT THE
MAXIMUM YIELD AT
MINIMUM EXPENSE
4. ENFRAMING
I N T H I S W AY, W E A R E C H A L L E N G E D B Y M O D E R N
T E C H NO LO GY TO APPROACH N AT U R E “A S AN
OBJECT OF RESEARCH” TO REVEAL OR “ORDER
THE REAL AS S TA N D I N G R E S E R V E ”. HEIDEGGER
REFERS TO THIS AS ENFRAMING. ENFRAMING IS
T H E E S S E N C E O F M O D E R N T E C H N O LO GY.
 Way of revealing in modern technology

Views nature as calculable and orderable

system of information (calculative thinking)
ENFRAMING
Earth as gas station

Conceals poeisis
 • Art provides us with a way out of enframing by bringing us closer
to poiesis and further away from techne. Art activates human
sensitivity if it even exists in an individual. The use of imagination
and actually seeing things the way they are is part of poieses.

A RT A S A WAY O U T O F E N F R A M I N G
 A R T A S A W AY
OUT OF
ENFRAMING
• Modern technology, on the other hand, challenges
everything in its desire to prepare for the future, in
other words, it destroys and disrupts the natural
world. It is now part of our life causing it to be
an enframing factor in it.
• To get away from it from time to time and indulge in
the arts reacquaints us to our past reality that is
increasingly being forgotten today.
 3. QUESTIONING IS
A PIETY OF
THOUGHT
A PROCESS OF KNOWING THE
TRUTH OF WHO WE ARE AS
BEINGS IN THIS WORLD.

Piety is a the quality of being religious or reverent.

It is in questioning that we
build a way to understand.
Technology is usually thought of as that
which solves problems but Heidegger
Calculative and meditative
asserts that it is something we must thinking works together.
question.
 THE HUMAN PERSON
S WA L LOW E D B Y T E C H N OLO GY
H O W D O W E S A V E O U R S E L V E S F R O M B E I N G S W A L L O W E D B Y
T E C H N O L O G Y
AITION
• Aition is an ancient Greek word which means ‘cause’ or
‘reason’, that to which something else is indebted’, not
cause and effect
• Aition is responsible for bringing forth
• Though we have consigned technology as a tool, it belongs to the realm
of truth as a way of revealing.
• Technology as something that defines how we do science is aition.
• Though enframing happens, it cannot snuff out the poetic character of
technology.
 THE WASTELAND GROWS.
WOE TO HIM WHO HARBORS
TH E WA STE L A N D.
OUR EARTH IS NOT AN
E A R T H O F C A LC U L AT I O N .
IF THIS REMAINS SUCH,
O N LY A G O D C A N S A V E U S .
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE