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Science, Technology and Society Midterm Reviewer 1

Science, Technology, and Society (Our Lady of Fatima University)

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WEEK 7: 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

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.
“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.”
Two definitions of technology
 “Technology is a means to an end” (Instrumental definition).
 “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 (material cause) - the material, the matter out of which an object is made.

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2. Causa formalis (formal cause) -the form, the shape into which the material enters.
3. Causa efficiens (final cause) - which brings about the effect that is finished
4. Causa finalis (efficient cause) - 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
Terminologies
Aletheia
 means unhiddenness or disclosure
Poesis

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 Is defined as bringing forth.

Techne
 is the root of technology
Piety
 Is associated with being religious.
WEEK 8: Human flourishing
 Is defined as an endeavor to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger
community of individuals.
 This also means access to the pleasant life, the engaged or good life and the meaningful life.
SELIGMAN, STEEN, PARK AND PETERSON, 2005
 Stated that human flourishing requires the development of attributes and social and personal levels that
exhibit character strengths and virtues that are commonly agreed across different cultures.
ARISTOTLE
 There is an end of all the actions that we perform which we desire for itself.
 Flourishing is the greatest good of human endeavors and that toward which all actions aim.
 The good is what is good for purposeful and goal-directed entities.
 He presented the various popular conceptions of the best life for human beings; (1) a philosophical life,
(2).life of pleasure and (3) a life of political activity.

(NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 1095A17)

Eudamonia
 Means good spirit is a property of one’s life when considered as a whole. It is formally egoistic in that a
person’s normative reason for choosing particular actions stems from the idea that he must pursue his own
good or flourishing.
 It also implies a divine state of being that humanity is able to strive toward and possibly reach.
- Happiness is “doing well” and” living well”. It is a pleasant state of mind.
- Verbally there is a very general agreement; for both the general run of men and people of superior refinement say
that is ( Eudaimonia), and identify living well and faring well with being happy; but with regard to what
( Eudaimonia) is they differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise.

EPICURUS
 identifies that the eudaimon life is the life of pleasure maintains that life of pleasure coincides with the life of
virtue.
 He understands Eudaimonia as a more or less continuous experience of pleasure and, also freedom from pain
and distress.
 Virtue is only instrumentally related to happiness.
SOCRATES
 Believed that virtues such as self-control, justice, courage, wisdom, piety and related qualities of mind and
soul are absolutely crucial if a person is to lead a good and happy life.
 Virtues guarantee a happy life Eudaimonia
PLATO
 Eudaimonia depends on virtue (arête) which is depicted as the most crucial and the dominant constituent of
euddaimonia.
PYRRHO
 Founder of Pyrrhonism, a school of philosophical skepticism that places the attainment of ataraxia (a state of
equanimity) as a way to achieve Eudaimonia.
 Pyrrhonist practice is for the purpose of achieving epoch.

Terminologies
Dasein
 which literally means “being there” focuses on the “mode of existence”
Eudemonia
 Is consists of Greek words “eu” which means “good” and “daemon” which means “spirit”.

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Forget 'developing' poor countries, it's time to 'de-develop' rich countries

 Jason Hickel
 The main objective is to eradicate poverty by 2030. Beyoncé, One Direction and Malala are on board. It’s set
to be a monumental international celebration.
 The main objective is to eradicate poverty by 2030. Beyoncé, One Direction and Malala are on board. It’s set
to be a monumental international celebration.
 Orthodox economists insist that all we need is yet more growth. More progressive types tell us that we
need to shift some of the yields of growth from the richer segments of the population to the poorer ones,
evening things out a bit.
 Growth isn’t an option any more – we’ve already grown too much. Scientists are now telling us that we’re
blowing past planetary boundaries at breakneck speed.
 And the hard truth is that this global crisis is due almost entirely to overconsumption in rich countries.
 ECONOMIST PETER EDWARD argues that instead of pushing poorer countries to “catch up” with rich
ones, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to “catch down” to more appropriate levels of
development.
The pope v the UN: who will save the world first?
 It’s about reaching a higher level of understanding and consciousness about what we’re doing here and why.
ROBERT AND EDWARD SKIDELSKY
 Take us down this road in his book How Much is enough?
 Where they lay out the possibility of interventions such as banning advertising, a shorter working week and a
basic income, all of which would improve our lives while reducing consumption.

WEEK 9: THE GOOD LIFE

ARISTOTLE (NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 2:2)

 All human activities aim at some good. Every art and human inquiry, and similarly every 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.
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND MODERN CONCEPTS
 Eudaimonia- Eu-good, daimon- spirit= good life
 Good life- happiness and virtue
 Virtue- intellectual and moral

The 4 Pillar of the Good life

 Health, wealth, love and happiness

THE HAPPINESS PURSUIT

 Everybody wants more happiness and success.
 It’s good to know how to optimize happiness and success.
 There is a wide agreement that happiness is the greatest human good.
RISK FACTORS
 The happiness pursuit becomes one’s ultimate purpose in life.
 The happiness pursuit is not guided by a philosophy of life informed by general principles of meaning,
spirituality and virtue.
GOLDEN RULE
Confucius:
 What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
Aristotle:
 We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to us.
Buddhism:
 Hurt not others with that which pains thyself.
Christianity:
 D unto others as you would have them do unto you.

 They make personal happiness and success their ultimate end of life without moral compass and without the
desire to pursue inner goodness.
Disillusion- KING SOLOMON realized the vanity of success long, long ago: The world will never be enough: “The
eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing”( Eccl.1:8)
 It takes more and more to reach the same level of happiness- addiction, money etc.

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 Nothing in this world can fill the spiritual vacuum within us.
 Dreams are often broken when reality strikes.

FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCE

 Bad things happen to good people
 Reversal of fortune
 For some people, most days are bad days. ( poverty)

HEIDEGGER
 Living an authentic life means living with deep acceptance on the facticity of death resulting to a life lived
SOCRATES
 The unexamined life is not worth living for.

The Holistic Approach

 good people, good community and world peace= good life

MATERIALISM
 A form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all
things, including mental aspects and consciousness are results of material interactions.
 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 invisible units in the world called atomos or seeds.
 Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world.
Classification of Materialism
1. Naïve materialism
2. Dialectical materialism
3. Metaphysical materialism

Hedonism
 Is a school of thought that argues that the pursuit of pleasure and intrinsic goods are the primary or most
important goals of human life.
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 path to happiness for humans is found in accepting this moment as it presents itself, by not allowing
ourselves to be controlled by our desire for pleasure, or our fear of pain.
THEISM
 The belief in the existence of the Supreme Being or Deities
 Describes the classical conception of God.
 The ultimate basis of happiness is the communication with God
 Monotheism- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism
HUMANISM
 A 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.
 Is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and
collectively.
 Refers to nontheistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from
a supernatural source to understand the world.
THE GOOD LIFE IS A BALANCE LIFE
 A single-minded pursuit is not always beneficial.
 Active engagement needs to be balanced by rest.
 Exclusive love needs to be balanced by greater love.
 Achievement needs to be balanced by acceptance.
 Self-transcendence needs to be balanced by fair treatment.
Terms
 Virtue is the excellence of character that empowers one to do good and be good.
 Happiness defines a good life.
 Eudamonia refers to good spirit

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WEEK 10: WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS

DAVID MATTIN
 The idea that new technologies can liberate us from the human condition is a fantasy. In reality, the 21st-
cenntury will be all too human.

HUMANITY
 A virtue associated with basic ethics of altruism derived from human condition ( wikipedia).
ACCORDING TO CONFUCIUS
 Humanity is a” love of people”, if you want to make a stand, help others make a stand.

Human Robot Interaction

 This implies the world would be prepared for more smart intelligence to be utilized in day-to-day applications
(SINGH).
 The possibility of robots may bring to most minds the possibility of androids like T-800 in the movie
“Terminator”.
 The vast majority of us are not able to understand that a lot of robots exist in the most basic forms today; they
are not so much android but rather more like industrial tools or equipment.
The Impact of Technology on Human Health
 Technology has crept into every corner of our lives, form obsessive texting to checking emails more often.
Most of us absorb three times more information everyday compared with 50 years ago.
 According to a 2010 Nielsin survey, we send and receive text messages 3, 339 times a month (Deodhar).
The Future of Humanity (Nick Bostrom, 2009)
 An estimated 99% of all species that ever existed on earth are already extinct (Raup, 1991).
Recurrent Collapse
 This means that the human condition will reach a kind of statis, either instantly or after undergoing one or
more cycles of collapse regeneration.
Plateau
 Human civilization may reach a level of technological advancement beyond which no further advancement is
feasible.
 Predictions that life span can be greatly increased have depended in part on the apparent decelerations and
plateaus.
Post humanity
 People have developed significantly different cognitive abilities, population sizes, body types, sensory or
emotional experiences or life expectancies. Post humanity has established itself as a label for a form of human
existence radically transformed by the most advanced medical techniques and by the use of biotechnology and
nanotechnology for human enhancement.
Technology Trends (Jayshree Pandya)
1. Biological Engineering and Bio-Economy
2. Molecular Manufacturing and Self-replicating Systems
3. Distributed Additive Manufacturing
4. Artificial Intelligence Driven Automation
5. Neuromorphic Computing and Computing Beyond Turing Limit
6. Quantum Computing and Control
7. Nanosatellites and Space Exploration
8. Internet to BrainNet
9. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
10. Brain Mapping and Brain Uploading

TERMINOLOGIES
HUMANITY
 From the latin word “humanitas” which means “human nature, kindness.”
 the human race, which includes everybody on earth.
 It’s also a word for the qualities that make us human, such as that ability to love and have compassion, be
creative and not be a robot or alien.
"Soft war"
 is a concept used to explain rights and duties of is urgent even terrorists during armed struggle.
Is Google Making Us Stupid?

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 Nicholas Carr
WEEK 11: WHY DOES THE FUTURE DOESN’T NEED US- BILL JOY

C.S.LEWIS argued that humanity, so –called power over nature “turns out to be a power exercised by some men over
other men with Nature as its instrument’. He feared that modernism and its ability to explain away everything but
“nature “would leave us emptied of humanity.
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA, there are three possible scenarios for the near future.
 First, the genetically enhanced intelligence or the prospect of living longer lives free from genetic disease.
 Next, advance in stem cell research might soon allow us to regenerate any tissue in the body.
 Lastly, the widespread use of psychotropic drugs like Prozac and Ritalin that can make everyone happy
without the side effects of the drugs.
JACQUES ELLUL warns that as technological capabilities grow, they results in countless means to accomplish tasks
than ever before. The more dependent we become on technology, the more it conforms our behavior to its
requirements rather than vice versa.
WILLIAM GIBSON, who coined the term “CYBERSPACE”, has said the ‘the future is here”- it’s just not evenly
distributed”.
 Some of the important changes in the future will come not from a new technology, but from a large number of
people having access to something that already exists (Scharre, 2017).

21st Century Technologies

1. Genetic engineering
 Is the process by which an organisms’ genetic material is altered or manipulated so that the
organism will have specific characteristics.
2. Robotics
 Is an interdisciplinary research area at the interface of computer science and engineering. It involves
the conception, design, manufacture and operation of robots
Types of Robots
 Pre-Programmed Robots ( operate in a controlled environment where they do simple, monotonous
tasks),
 Humanoid robots ( robots that look like and/ or mimic human behavior- Sophia),
 Autonomous Robots ( operate independently of human operators, )
 Teleoperated Robots ( mechanical bots controlled by humans),
 Augmenting Robots ( either enhance current human capabilities or replace the capabilities a
human may have lost),
3. Nanotechnology
 is the study and manipulation of atomic or molecular scale to improve or even revolutionize many
technology and industry sectors.
4. Artificial Intelligence
 Refers to “machines” that respond to stimulation consistent with traditional responds from human,
given the capacity for contemplation, judgement and intention.
ALAN TURING established the fundamental goal and vision of artificial intelligence. It is the attempt TO
replicate or simulate human intelligence in machines.
NORVIG AND Russell defined Artificial Intelligence in four approaches: Thinking rationally, thinking
humanly, acting rationally and acting humanly.

POTENTIAL RISKS TO SOCIETY

 Devaluation of humanity Decrease in demand of human labor
 High costs of creation Ethical issues
 Social isolation Environmental Problems
Post-humanity is a theory/ concept that is of an advance level of technological or economic development
that would involve a radical change in the human condition, whether the change was brought by biological
enhancement or other cause. GNR- Genetics ,Nanotechnology and Robotics
KMD- knowledge and enabled mass destruction
WMD- Weapon of Mass Destruction
NBC- Nuclear, Biological and Chemical

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