COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

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

a. identify the different conceptions of Human Flourishing.
b.determine the development of the scientific method and
validity of science.
c.critic human flourishing in relation to progress of science and
technology to be able to define for themselves the meaning of a
good life.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

➢ The progress of human civilizations throughout history mirrors the
development of science and technology.
➢ The human person, as both the bearer and beneficiary of science and
technology, flourishes and finds meaning in the world that he/she
builds.
➢ In the person’s pursuit of the good life, he/she may unconsciously
acquire, consume, or destroy what the world has to offer.
➢ It is thus necessary to reflect on the things that truly matter.
➢ Science and Technology must be taken as part of human life that
merits reflective and-as the German philosopher Martin Heidegger
says-meditative thinking.
➢ Science and technology, despite its methodical and technical nature,
gives meaning to the life of a person making his/her way in the world

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➢ To be able to appreciate the fruits of science and
technology, they must be examined not only for their
function and instrumentality but also for their greater
impact on humanity as a whole.
➢ The various gadgets, machines, appliances and vehicles are
all tools that make human lives easier because they serve as
a means to an end.
➢ Their utility lies on providing people with a certain good,
convenience, or knowledge.
➢ Meanwhile, medical research employs the best scientific and
technological principles to come up with cures for diseases
and ways to prevent illness to ensure a good quality of life.

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➢ A state where people experience positive emotions,
positive psychological functioning and positive
social functioning, most of the time, “living” with
in an optimal range of human functioning.
➢ You might believe that a person is flourishing when
she is happy and content, or when she is learning
new things and applying her skills to new
challenges.

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➢ An effect to achieve self-
actualization and fulfillment within
the context of a larger community of
individuals, each with the rights to
pursue his/her own such efforts.
➢ Involves the rational use of one’s
individual human individual human
potentialities including talents,
abilities and virtues in the in the
pursuit of his freely and rationally
chosen values and goals.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

➢ Human person as both the bearer
and beneficiary of science and
technology
➢ Human flourishes and finds
meaning in the world that he/she
builds
➢ Human may unconsciously acquire,
consume or destroy what the world
has to offer.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

➢ In psychology, happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among
others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.
➢ To behaviorists, happiness is a cocktail of emotions we experience when we do something good or
positive.
➢ To neurologists, happiness is the experience of a flood of hormones released in the brain as a reward for
behavior that prolongs survival.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

➢ The hedonistic view of well-being is that happiness is the
polar opposite of suffering, the presence of happiness
indicates the absence of pain. Because of this, hedonists
believe that the purpose of life is to maximize happiness,
which minimizes misery.
➢ Eudaimonia, a term that combines the Greek words for
"good" and "spirit" to describe the ideology. Eudaimonia
defines happiness as the pursuit of becoming a better
person. Eudaimonists do this by challenging themselves
intellectually or by engaging in activities that make them
spiritually richer people.

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good spirited”
coined by Greek philosopher
Aristotle
Describes the pinnacle of
happiness that is attainable by
humans.
“human flourishing”

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Aristotle believed that human flourishing requires a
life with other people. Aristotle taught that people
acquire virtues through practice and that a set of
concrete virtues could lead a person toward his natural
excellence and happiness.
According to Aristotle, there is an end of all of the
actions that we perform which we desire for itself. This
is what is known as eudaimonia, flourishing, or
happiness, which is desired for its own sake with all
other things being desired on its account. Eudaimonia
is a property of one's life when considered as a whole.
Flourishing is the highest good of human endeavors and
that toward which all actions aim. It is success as a
human being. The best life is one of excellent human
activity.
From Nicomachean Ethics (the philosophical inquiry
into the nature of the good life for a human being.)
Human flourishing arises as a result of different
components such as
- Phronesis, Friendship, Wealth, Power COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.
As time changes, elements that
comprise human flourishing
changed.
People found means to live
more comfortably, explore more
places, develop more products,
and make more money.
Humans of today are expected to
become “man of the world.”
Supposed to situate himself in a
global neighborhood, working side
by side among institutions and the
government to be able to reach a
common goal.
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Every discovery, innovation, and
success contributes to our pool of
human knowledge.
Human’s perpetual need to locate
himself in the world by finding proofs
to trace evolution.
Elicits our idea of self-importance.
Technology is a human activity we
excel in as a result of achieving
science. (Heidegger)
Good is inherently related to the
truth.
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Science stems from objectivity brought upon by a rigid method
Claim to reason and empiricism

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group of scholars who believed
that only those which can be
observed should be regarded as
meaningful.
Reject those which cannot be
directly accessed as
meaningless.

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 As long as an ideology is not
proven to be false and can best
explain a phenomenon
over alternative theories, we
should accept the said ideology.
Allowed emergence of theories
otherwise rejected by the
verification theory.
Encourages research in order to
determine which among the
theories can stand the test of
falsification
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aim at the production of new,
falsifiable predictions, scientific
practice is characterized by its
continual effort to test theories
against experience and make
revisions based on the outcomes
of these tests

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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.
For Aristotle, morality is the
study of the good life.

The good life includes:

✓ good choices,
✓ good actions,
✓ good habits,
✓ good character.
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 When a thing has a proper
operation, the good of the thing
and its well-being consist in that
operation.

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✓ A good computer is one that operates as it was designed to. It computes
well.
✓ A good saw operates as it was designed to: it cuts well
✓ A good plant acts according to its nature (functions well). Grows,
reproduces, nourishes itself.
✓ A good dog functions according to its animal nature runs, senses (follow
a scent), fetches sticks, barks, defends house, etc.
✓ A good man functions well Man’s specific operation (function): Intellect
(to think) Will (to choose) Hence, a good man reasons well and chooses
well.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

✓ Is possible for a person to achieve everything
that he has set out to achieve in life and in the
end find himself unhappy?
✓ Is it possible to have a wife/husband, children,
house, and a good job, and at the same time
still be unhappy?

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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.
✓ For Aristotle, happiness results from the fulfillment of one’s human nature and
since one’s nature is fulfilled or perfected by the virtues, it follows that:
✓ Happiness is: Activity in accordance with perfect virtue
✓ Happiness is fullness of being. For that is the meaning of “good”. The good is
fullness of being.
✓ The good life is the happy life.
✓ The good life is one that is most fully what it is meant to be. Now, human
goodness means human well being, or fullness of human nature. A good
human action is one that promotes the fullness of one’s being. The virtues
perfect the powers of human nature and so one cannot be happy without
virtue. That is why pleasure or financial security have never succeeded in
bringing anyone the happiness that they long for. Virtue must come before
wealth and pleasure. COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.
✓ Repeated activity leads to habit. A virtue is a habit that makes us good. A
vice is a bad habit that disposes us to what is evil or deficient.
✓ Contrary to Socrates and Plato, Aristotle does not teach that virtue is
knowledge. Indeed, there are intellectual virtues, but the intellectual virtues
do not make us morally good. One may have the virtues of science,
wisdom, and understanding, but remain unjust, cowardly and intemperate.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

If happiness is the fulfillment of human nature, what
are the powers in human nature that need to be
fulfilled?
✓ Reason (intelligence)
✓ Will
✓ The Concupiscible
Appetite
✓ The Irascible Appetite

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✓ Intelligence is the power that distinguishes you from
brute animals. It is the power that enables you to think.
But not everyone thinks well. Morally speaking, Hitler did
not think well.

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✓ The will is what enables you to get out of
bed every morning. You don’t feel like
getting out of bed, but you choose to do so
anyways.
✓ You may not feel like taking a bad tasting
medicine, but you choose to do so
anyways. That’s the will.
✓ A dog has no will. Put a piece of red meat
in front of a hungry dog, and it will eat it.

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✓ The Concupiscible Appetite: This is
the pleasure appetite. This appetite
gives rise to sense desire. Animals
have this desire, which is why the
hungry dog will necessarily eat the
red meat.

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

✓ Otherwise called the aggressive
appetite. This appetite gives rise to the
emotions of anger, fear and daring. This
dog is either afraid and running for its
life, or it is angry and pursuing the object
of his anger.

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✓ The person who easily gives up when things become
difficult.
✓ The person who runs when there is danger.
✓ The person who cannot hold a job because he has
no self-control over alcoholic drink.
✓ The person who has no control over his sexual
appetite, and so can think of nothing other than sex.

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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.
Prudence: Wisdom. Knowing what is the morally right choice to
make. The ability to apply moral principles to concrete situations.
Justice: Rendering to another his due. The parts of justice are:
Piety renders due honor to parents.
Religion renders due honor to God.
Observance renders due honor to those in public office.
General Justice renders due honor to the civil community as a
whole (the state).
Fortitude: The virtue that moderates the emotions of fear and
daring.
Temperance: The virtue that moderates the pleasures of touch
(the pleasures of eating, drinking, and sexual activity).

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCIENCE DEPT.

✓ According to Aristotle, happiness is goodness or virtue. If
a person has cultivated the virtues of Prudence, Justice,
Fortitude, and Temperance, such a person is good. And a
good person is a happy person.

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✓ It’s not having a wife/husband, children, house, and a good job
that will make one happy, since many who have such things
remain unhappy.
✓ Only a virtuous person will be able to be a good husband/wife,
a good parent, and a person committed to the good of the state.
✓ It isn’t doing what you want that renders one happy, but being
good or virtuous, that is, having good character.
✓ It is impossible for a virtuous person (character) to be unhappy

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✓ The good life also includes secondary aspects that add to the
happy life. They do not constitute the happy life, but they add to it.
Many people today confuse the secondary instances of the Kalon
with the primary. Happiness is found in virtue, not in these
secondary instances.
✓ Most people confuse the secondary instances of the Kalon with
the primary instance. The secondary instances include good
health and appearance, full life span, friendships, good family
origin, sufficient wealth, etc.

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REFERENCES:
✓ Science Technology & Society. McNamara et. al, 2018
✓ Science Technology & Society. Prieto et. al, 2019
✓ https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/aristotle/
✓ https://reasonandmeaning.com/2013/12/19/aristotle-on-the-good-and-
meaningful-life/

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