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Chapter 6
Philosophical Aspects of STS

Presentation by: Carmelo Miguel H. Ebreo

Physical Science Department
 Overview

I. Philosophical Origins

II. Good Life and Happiness

III. Limitations of Science and Technology

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 Objectives
Review the Philosophical Origins of S&T

Understand the Different Schools of Thought form Ancient Greece

Define What a Good Life Means from Past and Then

Analyse the Impacts of Technology on Society

Reflect on Human Condition in the Context of S&T

 Introduction
Philosophy Means “Love of Wisdom”

Philosophy Provided Foundations For Science

Science Naturally Originated From Philosophy

Science Seeks Objective Truth Through Empiricism

Science and Technology Have Limitations

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 Philosophical Background
Some key figures of Metaphysics, Epistemology, Empiricism, etc.

[1] Plato [2] Aristotle [3] Rene Descartes [4] David Hume [5] Immanuel Kant
(428-348 BCE) (385-323 BCE) (1596-1650) (1711-1776) (1724-1804)

Images source:
[1] https://wellcomecollection.org/works/v9mqh7zb
[2] https://www.biography.com/scholar/aristotle
[3] https://www.biography.com/scholar/rene-descartes
[4] http://www.dailynews.lk/2019/12/23/tc/206398/david-hume-natural-comfortable-thinking?page=6
[5] https://medium.com/thedialogues/immanuel-kant-1724-1804-f736bafe364d COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
 Plato’s The Akademeia (387 BCE)

Images source: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/plato COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

Schools of Thoughts of the Hellenistic Age (323-30 BCE)

Cynicism: denial of established norms, follow one’s natural

inclinations; people must reject all conventional needs such as
power, sex, and wealth to be attuned with nature
Scepticism: people should doubt their senses; no one can be
certain about the knowledge that we have
Epicureanism/Hedonism: Pleasure and Pain are the two only
important aspects of living; happiness is achieved through pleasure
Stoicism: Virtue is the highest good based on Perfect Rationality;
we best achieve happiness when we resign ourselves to Fate

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 Philosophy of Science
From Empiricism (experience-based thinking) to Logicism

[1] Ibn Sina or [2] Francis [3] Russel

Avicenna Bacon Bertrand
(980-1037) (1561-1626) (1872-1970)

Images source:
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Portrait-of-ibn-Sina-or-Avicenna-980-1037-CE_fig7_236331515
[2] https://www.biography.com/scholar/francis-bacon
[3] https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/bertrand-russell-science-philosophy/ COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
 How Science is Done
Types of Reasoning
Deductive Reasoning
Inductive Reasoning
Abductive Reasoning

Images source: https://www.setthings.com/en/branches-of-science/ COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

 Fields of Modern Science
Natural Social Formal
Sciences Sciences Sciences

Images sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_science
https://study.com/academy/course/natural-sciences-course.html
https://mronline.org/2018/05/22/karl-marx-the-social-sciences/
https://www.sbra.be/en/content/value-social-science-humanities-europe
https://towardsdatascience.com/best-data-science-tools-for-data-scientists-75be64144a88?gi=94eb1d250465 COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
Images source: https://www.setthings.com/en/branches-of-science/ COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
 Validity of Scientific Reasoning
Image source:
The Vienna Circle (1907) and Berlin Circle https://partiallyexam
inedlife.com/2015/0

(1920): two groups of empiricists who 3/17/science-

technology-and-
society-iii-the-

maintained the Verifiability Principle or vienna-circle/

Verificationism
Verificationism: if a principle cannot be
supported by empirical evidence, then it is
regarded as meaningless
Alternatively, Karl Popper proposed the
Falsification Principle: as long as the
experiment is not false, it is accepted as the
prevailing explanation to the relevant Image source:
https://plato.stanfor
phenomena d.edu/entries/poppe
r/
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 The Concept of Good Life and Happiness
Greek concept: Eudaimonia which literally means “good-spirited”. It can
also mean “human flourishing” or “prosperity”

Eudaimonia is central to the philosophy of Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics –

eudaimonia is the end goal of human action and the highest human good; the
“human good turns out to be [rational] activity of soul in accordance with
virtue”

Eudaimonia is analogous to the top most position in Maslow’s Hierarchy of

Needs: Self-actualization is the highest personal need (top of the pyramid
diagram)

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 True Meaning of Technology
➢What comes first in mind?
➢Application of Science on our everyday problems
➢Something that is a machine or a process
➢It comes from the Greek word techne (refers to manufacturing and
arts)
➢Techne is a part of poiesis (“bringing forth”) – something that brings
concealment into reveal
➢Poiesis is related to aletheia (“truth”)
➢From this, we can say that technology is a way that reveals the truth
and contributes to good

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 Role of Technology in Our Lives
What could go wrong? Technology is amoral: it
does not tell us what is morally right or wrong.
Martin Heidegger’s points on his analysis of
technology:
1. Technology is not an instrument; it is a way of
revealing the truth about the world
2. Technology is not controlled by humans; it is
Technology that controls human activities
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
3. Technology is dangerous in a sense that it frames ( https://thegreatthinkers.org/heidegger/)

our thinking bout the world

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 Summary
Science naturally came from Philosophy and it uses many paradigms to
search for truths about nature

We live our lives on the prospect of Good life and Happiness

Technology is not only a mere device, but also a way to reveal hidden truths

Science/Technology have its limitations. It only looks for objective truths

Science/Technology is amoral. It is in our hands to use it for better or worse

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 Activity
Instruction: Answer the ff. in brief paragraph form. Provide
diagrams/illustrations if necessary (write on paper then send as picture, or write
in MS Word/MS OneNote saved as a PDF file)

1. Aristotle’s Eudaimonia is complete and sufficient. As such, Aristotle considers children as incapable attaining Eudaimonia.
Do you agree? Why or why not?

2. What is your own notion of a good life? What school of thought do you think you belong? Explain why.

3. Based on your experiences and learnings, propose your own school of thought, write its description and cite few examples
of its applications/possible impacts.
 References For Further Learning

For more details on philosophy

• Zalta, E. (Ed.). (2019). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford.Edu; The Metaphysics
Research Lab Center for the Study of Language and Information Stanford University Stanford, CA
94305-4115. https://plato.stanford.edu/index.html
• Mastin, L. (2019). The Basics of Philosophy: A huge subject broken down into manageable
chunks. Philosophybasics.Com. https://www.philosophybasics.com/
YouTube playlist on crash course philosophy
• CrashCourse. (2019). Crash Course Philosophy [YouTube Video]. In YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdYldNkMybYIHKR
General reference of our STS course
• Astorga, M. J., Atienza, A., Bumanglag, C., Dacumos, N., Falcatan, A., Granada, J. R.,
Labaclado, L., Mirani, A., & Omiles, M. (2019). Science, Technology, and Society: Vol. NA (pp.
179–194). T&E Publishing. (Original work published 2019)

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