TO THE LEARNERS

Here are some reminders as you use this module:

 Use the module with care especially in turning each page.
 Be reminded to answer the Pre-Test before moving on to the
Learning Module.
 Read and comprehend the directions in every exercises.
 Observe honesty in answering the tests and exercises.
 Do not put unnecessary mark/s on any part of this
material.
 Try to finish a given activity before proceeding to the next.
 12
Introduction to
the Philosophy of
the Human
Person
The Human Person in Society

ARNOLD JANSSEN B. REYES

Copyright 2019

1
 WHAT IS THIS MODULE ALL ABOUT?

This module serves as a learning resource material in understanding the

target competency expected in the curriculum.

TOPIC
The Human Person in Society

CONTENT STANDARD
The learner understands the interplay between the individuality of human
beings and their social contexts.

LEARNING COMPETENCY

PPT11/12-IIg-7.3

The presented activities or exercises and texts are developed

in order to meet the following objectives:

1. Recognize how individuals forms societies and how individuals are

transformed by societies.

2. Compare different forms of societies and individualities (e.g. Agrarian,

Industrial, and Virtual).

3. Explain how human relations are transformed by social systems.

4. Evaluate the transformation of human relationships by social systems

and how societies transform individual human beings.

2
 PRE-TEST

Read the following items carefully. Write the

letter of your answer.

1. It might lead to depression.

A. school
B. home
C. social media
D. media

2. The philosopher who cited this statement. “Rather than being

ourselves, we tend to conform to an image or idea associated with
being a certain type of person.”

A. Plato
B. Albert Camus
C. Jean Paul Sartre
D. Soren Kierkegaard

3. We should rely our totality, wholeness, or complete life in this aspect

A. social relations
B. social commitment
C. social responsibilities
D. social capabilities

4. He stated that friends are two bodies with one soul.

A. Plato
B. Aristotle
C. Democritus
D. Thales

3
5. The year when the beginning of Reformation started.

A. 1452
B. 1453
C. 1517
D. 1520

6. They sacked and pillaged the declining Western Roman Empire.

A. French Scouts
B. Turkish Barbarians
C. German Barbarians
D. German Empire

7. In his reign, Christianity began to lift Europe from the Dark Ages
where many barbarians become Christians .

A. Charlemagne
B. Constantine
C. Claudius
D. Clovis

8. It is a doctrine that holds conviction that the Son of God is finite and
created by God the Father, and thus, condemned as heresy by the
church.

A. Arian belief
B. Atheist belief
C. Reformists belief
D. Pagan belief

9. In his reign, Christianity widens.

A. Claudius
B. Constantine
C. Charlemagne
D. Clovis

4
 10. The way of life in the Middle Ages.

A. anarchism
B. paganism
C. scantilism
D. feudaalism

LET’S SEE WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW

Debate: The class will be divided to 2 groups. They will discuss if

social media has an advantage or disadvantage to adolescents.

Rubrics/Criteria:
Understanding the Topic (5 points)
Organization (5 points)
Evidences/Proofs (5 points)
Delivery (5 points)
TOTAL (20 points)

5
Questions:
1. How can social media influence you as a student?
2. What are your usual routines in using social media?
3. Do you think social media can help you in your everyday living?
Why or why not?
4. Do social media develop your perspective in life? If yes, how?

LET’S LEARN

Information Superhighway as
w what we know today gives
more focus on computer
hardware, software and
systems in terms of
contribution to society as basic
tools enabling fast and efficient
transfer of information. Before
ten, computers are used for
word processing. Nowadays,
the emergence of portable
computers (laptops) enables
many people to transact
business anywhere.

Researchers suggested that Facebook and other social

media might lead to depression. Most of the time, we post
our smiling faces (emojis), and other good or positive
posts online. We look at idealized versions of our online
friends leaving us feeling less attractive and less secure
about our own status. We tend to compare how many “likes” our posts
generated. Due to the comparisons, we become more dissatisfied.
Therefore, studies indicate that our social networking sites may
disconnect users rather than connect people (Garcia, 2014).

6
Lesson need to be established:
1. Do not limit interactions online.
2. Establish physical interaction with friends.
3. Family beyond digital world where one can truly find love,
acceptance, and self-esteem.

If Soren Kierkegaard is correct, rather than being ourselves, we tend

to conform to an image or idea associated with being a certain type of
person.(Example: posting your ideal profile picture in your facebook
account).

7
Life was much simpler before. One begins to comprehend how
technology evolved. From medieval crafts to the Industrial Revolution
that was dominated by factors such as revolutionary discoveries in
natural sciences, detection, and extraction of energy resources,
invention of mechanical devices, availability of investment capital,
improved means of transportation, communication and growing
interest taken by scientific and commercial circles in technology and
engineering.

Philosophically, our totality, wholeness, or “complete life,” relies on

our social relations

8
For Martin Buber, the human person attains fulfilment in the
realm of the interpersonal, in meeting the other, through
a genuine dialog.

For Karol Wojtyla (also known as Pope John

Paul II), through participation, we share in the
humanness of others.

Aristotle, Buber, and Wojtyla stress that the concreteness of our

experiences and existence is linked to our experience with others.

Different Forms of Societies and Individualties (Agrarian,

Industrial, and Virtual)

A. Medieval Period (500-1500 CE)

Some historians say that the Middle Ages began in Ad 476 when the
barbarian Odoacer overthrew Emperor Romulus Augustulus, ending
the Western Roman Empire; still others say about AD 500 or even
later. Historians say that the Middle Ages ended with the end of
Constantinople in 1453, with the discovery of America in 1492; or with
the beginning of the Reformation in 1517.

9
German barbarians sacked and pillaged the declining Western Roman
Empire. The invaders, however, lacked the knowledge and skills to
carry on Roman achievements in art, literature and engineering. In
effect, highly developed systems of Roman law and government gave
way to the rude forms of the barbarians. Thus, the early Medieval
period is sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages (Solomon & Higgins,
1996).

To the Romans, the State had been more important than the
individual. From the barbarians’ ideal of personal rights grew their
respect for women, their “government by the people,” and their crude
but representative law courts where kings and chiefs were elected by
tribal councils (which also served as court of laws).

In the reign of Clovis, Christianity began

to lift Europe from the Dark Ages. Many
barbarians had become Christians earlier
though mostly hold the Arian belief, a
doctrine that holds the conviction that the
Son of God is finite and created by God
the Father and, thus, condemned as
heresy by the church. Christianity’s
influence widened when the great
Charlemagne became the king of the
Franks who founded schools in monasteries and churches for both
poor and nobility.

10
Feudalism (Latin: feudum-property or possession)
 The way of life in the middle ages.
 About nine tenths of peasants are farmers or village laborers.
 Peasants work to support their lord.
 Many peasants build their villages of huts near the castles of
their lords for protection in exchange of their services.
 Besides labor, peasants have to pay taxes to their lord, in money
or produce. They have to give a tithe to the church for instance,
every tenth egg, wheat, etc.
 Famines were frequent. Plagues cut down the livestock. Floods,
droughts destroyed the crops.
 Burst of warfare ravaged the country’s ideas ravaged the
countryside as the lords burned each other’s fields and harvest.

However, with the growth of commerce and towns, feudalism as a

system of government began to pass. As changes in business,

11
government, and social customs steadily shaped a new life in Europe,
rising interest in artistic and intellectual achievements reached a peak
in the Renaissance—a revival in classical learning.

An interest in beauty and culture was reborn. In the 14th and 15th
centuries, leadership in art and literature returned to Western Europe,

Amid the turmoil of the Middle

Ages, one institution stood for the
Common good—the Roman
Catholic Church. Many historians
Say that its spirit and its work
Comprised “the great civilizing
influence of the Middle Ages.” By
the 13th Century, the church was
the strongest single influence in
Europe. Everyone except the
Arabs, Jews, and the people in the
Byantine Empire belonged to the church and felt its authority (Ramos,
2010).

The Middle Ages employed pedagogical methods that caused the

intercommunication between the various intellectual centers and the
unity of scientific language (Philosophy was taught in Latin on
schools). Down to the end of the 12th century, the seven liberal arts
trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and quadrivium (arithmetic,
geometrty, astronomy, and music) formed the basis of intellectual
culture in all scientific cultures.

12
There is another consideration that we must mention;
the practically unlimited trust in reason’s powers of
illumination is based, first and foremost, on faith.
Both faith and reason (fides and ratio) were conjoined
within the forthright, unbending personality of Anselm.

Anselm, far from deferring to mystery, tries to pave the

way for clearer understanding, to the stronger argument.

In the early Middle Ages the dichtonomy between faith and reason had
not yet taken place. Anselm’s line of argument rests upon the fact that
the nature of existence of God is different in principle from the nature
of all other existences, such as that of the island of the hundred tales.
We cannot make exact analogies between God and any other
phenomenon, for to exist actually belongs to the essence of God
(Johnston, 2006).

13
B. Modern Period (1500-1800)

Modern philosophy is an attack on

and a rejection of the Middle Ages that
occupied the preceding thousand years
(Solomon & Higgins, 1996). It is an
attack on the church that ruled those
ages and dictated its ideas. It is an
attack on the very notion of authority
itself, which was, as we have been, very
much at issue during the centuries
preceding.

The modern period is generally said to

begin around 1500. Less than a decade
before the arbitrary date Christopher
Columbus had landed his ships in the “new world,” altering not only
the geography but the politics of the world forever. Only a decade
after, Martin Luther would tack 95 theses to
the door of the church at Wittenberg and
initiate the Reformation, which would cause
several centuries of upheaval in Europe,
change the nature of Christian religion, and
eventually, change conceptions of human
nature. With the Reformation came not only
the rejection of medieval philosophy but also
the establishment of the “Protestant ethic,”
and the beginning of modern capitalism.

Human Being as the Most Interesting in Nature During the

Modern Period

Leadership in art and Literature reached a

peak in the Renaissance period. The result is
the revival of ancient philosophy and European
philosophers turning from supernatural to
natural or rational explanations of the world.
The Vitruvian man had been one of the most
famous icons of this period. As God’s most
perfect creation, harmonic proportions were
also believed to govern humanity’s form.
Leonardo da Vinci illustrated Vitruvius’
principle that a well-built human with hands
and feet extended fits perfectly into a circle and
a square.

14
Experimentation, observation and application of mathematics in the
natural sciences set standards for philosophic inquiry. Discoveries of
Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler,
and Newton influenced the
thinking of philosophers.
Nonetheless, we should not
overemphasize the triumphs
of modern science in the
history of modern philosophy
(Johnston, 2006). There is no
denying that the advances in
science during the 15th ti 18th
centuries inspired Descartes,
Hobbes, Bacon, and others.
Yet, there are other influences on the growth of philosophy.

Among them were the widespread use of money and the widespread of
commercialism and growth of great cities. The bloody and cruellest
years of continuous religious war from 16th to 17th century required
the need for a new kind of social philosophy. Modern philosophy itself
divides readily into periods; such division takes into accounts only
those movements and traditions those are widespread and lasting.

At the beginning, there is the philosophy of the 17 th century.

Rationalism was the predominant feature of this period. The
development of its philosophy could be traced from the writings of
Descartes (born in 1596) to Leibniz (who died in 176.

1. Naturalism (The 1st Period)

It belongs almost wholly to the 17th
century. The philosophy of this first age
lived in a world where two things seemed
clear:
a. Nature is full of facts which conform
fatally to exact and irreversible law.
b. Human beings live best under s strong,
benevolently dictatorial civil
government.

Philosophers during this time (17th

Century)
 Left off contemplating the heaven of
medieval piety and were disposed to deify
nature.

15
  Adored the rigidity of geometrical methods.
 They loved the study of the new physical science, which had
begun with Galileo.

Human beings, they conceived as a mechanism (Johnston, 2006).

Human emotions, even the loftiest, they delighted in explaining by
very simple and fundamental natural passion. In the days of the 17 th
century, fear is out of place (you may doubt if you will). Descartes
begins his reflection by doubting everything.

For philosophy in this age of the 17th century, the supernatural has
only a secondary interest, if it has any interest at all.

2. Empiricism (The 2nd Period)

The second age of modern philosophy
turned curiously back to the study of the
wondrous inner world of humanity’s soul.
To deify nature is not enough. Human
being is the most interesting in nature, and
he is not yet defined. He may be a part of
nature’s mechanism, or he may not; still
mechanism. His knowledge itself, what it is,
how it comes about, whence he gets it, how
it grows. What it signifies, how it can be
defended against scepticism, what it implies,

16
 both as to moral truth and as to theoretical truth—these problems
are foremost in the interests of the second period of modern
thought,

Gradually, attention is turned more and more from the outer world
to the mind of human being. Reflection
Is now more an inner study, an analysis
of the mind, that an examination of the
business of physical science. Human
reason is still the trusted instrument,
but it soon turns its criticism upon
itself, it distinguishes prejudices from
axioms, fears dogmatism, scrutinizes
the pieces of evidence of faith, suspects
or at best has consciously to defend,
even the apparently irresistible authority of conscience.

3. Critical Idealism (The 3rd Period)

Immanuel Kant brought up his philosophic thoughts

with the more general problem of knowledge.

He thought that humanity’s nature is the real creator of

humanity’s world. It is not the external world , as such,
that is the deepest truth for us at all; it is the inner
structure of the human spirit that merely expresses itself
in the visible nature about us.

17
Also, during this period, the consequences of
Copernican Revolution were many. Galileo,
convinced the correctness of this new way
of seeing the world, invented the telescope. From
then on, the development of modern astronomy
was assured (Johnston 2006). It is the attitude of
the mind that is evident, and the effect that it must
have upon thinking in general.

The Copernican innovation may not be so impressive, but

considered in its setting, its significance is great. As one of a
number of steps in the same general direction, it represents a
questioning attitude toward the activities of nature, and a spirit of
rebellion against things accepted solely on the basis of authority
and tradition. It represents a search for new standards of truth and
acceptance, and the beginnings of a science that is to stand
unaided upon the foundations of its own.

The effect is almost inevitable: this critical, searching, rebellious

spirit which crops out in the scientific mind is bound to have its
counterpart in the philosophic one. The new development in
science, though exhibits open-mindedness, does not cease to be
dogmatic in its way. It is critical of the old, sure of itself as the old
had ever been. The conviction that truth is attained and reality lays
bare, that the old is wrong while the new is right, seems to
characterize all the innovators of science at this time. It was
responsible for their troubles, for difficulties (i.e., hindered
publications), and in some cases, for imprisonment and death.
However, in may have been responsible, too, for progress they made
and the success they had.

Copernicus stands as an example of a science in

throes of revolution, critical and yet self-assured
and dogmatic, opening up new visions of the world
of nature, and leaving the thinking world in general
to assimilate these changes and make of them the
best it can. By the beginning of the modern age, the
rapid growth of the increasingly cosmopolitan cities
of Europe, with their global reach, their extensive colonies and their
national and international rivalries, required a new kind of
philosophy, intensively self-questioning but arrogant as well
(Solomon & Higgins 1996).

18
 Enthusiasm for the new science ushered in a
deep-seated philosophical trend, whose
adherents stressed the importance of
universally compelling science for philosophy.
The attitude in Descartes and in all others
who would soon gain acceptance as the
universally valid truth, and each of these
philosophers consequently prided himself on
being the cornerstone and founder of the true
scientific philosophy.

C. Globalization and Technological Innovations

Globalization
 Not a one-way process, but comprises the multilateral
interactions among global systems, local practices, transnational
trends, and personal lifestyles. This interlocking of the global,
and the local and the personal can be smooth or rough for
communities and individuals who respond favourably or
adversely to it.
 It makes local knowledge no longer purely local.
 Its process had already begun long before the 21st century.
 In the sense of adoption and acceptance of some standards in
the various aspects of life, had its embryonic beginnings in the
west in the 15th century as an accompaniment to the new ideas
of the Renaissance and Enlightenment.

19
The introduction of new inventions in science eventually led to the
industrial revolution in the 18th century, and since then, Western
society has taken off on a journey through the endless world of
science to bring society into the developed conditions that can be
seen today. Initially, the word “industry” and the period in which its
use changes is the period that we call Industrial Revolution.

Industrial Revolution is a movement in which machine changed

people’s way of life as well as their methods of manufacture, industry,
before this period, was a name for particular human attributes: skill,
assiduity, perseverance, and diligence. The use of the term still
survives.

In the last decades of the 18th century, industry came to mean a

collective work for our manufacturing and productive institutions,
and for their general activities. Industrious, usually attributed to
persons, is joined in the 19th century by industrial, which describes
the institutions. The rapid growth of these institutions is seen as
creating new system, which in the 1830’s is called industrialism.

Industrial revolution came gradually in a short span of time. This

relatively sudden change in humanity’s way of life deserves to be
called a revolution. It grew more powerful each year due to new
inventions and manufacturing processes that added to the efficiency
of machines. In part, this is the acknowledgment of a series of very
important technical changes and of their transforming effects on
methods of production (changes and transformation of society
(Germain 2000)).

20
Significant Changes of Industrial Revolution (Germain 2000)
1. The invention of machines in lieu of doing the work of hand tools.
2. The use of steam, and other kinds of power vis-à-vis the muscles of
human beings and of animals.
3. The embracing of factory system

Factors of Technology
1. More automatic machines were invented to
handle jobs with little supervision of human
beings.
2. Created not only a new industry, but also a
catalyst to help quicken the tempo and
reshape the structure of industrial society.
3. They see the central functions required for
human existence or amenities audited and
controlled by information transmitted by
electronic form.
4. Importance of media communication.
5. Automatically powered machines (19th century)
6. Automatic and electronic computers (Babbage Conception)
7. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) by John McCarthy who coined the term
in 1955 (intelligent machines)
8. The emergence of notebooks and portable computers.
9. Internet

21
 LET’S TRY THIS AND SELF-CHECK

Essay: In a form of essay, explain how the following affected your way
of living in the society (Tip: Human application should be included).

A. History
B. Modernization and Globalization
C. Technology
D. Schooling/Education
E. Church and Other Religious Groups

LET’S STUDY AND ANALYZE THESE

Societal Timeline: Make a timeline in which you are going to write

your personal experiences wherein your way of living keeps on
changing through the influential help and role of society.

22
 LET’S LEARN

Change as a Condition of Human Life

As industry changed, social and political conditions transformed.

European farmers and artisans flocked to the manufacturing centers
and became industrial workers. Cities grew quickly as the percentage
of farmers in the population declined. Change from domestic industry

to factory system meant a loss of interdependence to the work. The

home laborer could work whenever he pleased although the need for
money drove him to toll for long hours; he could vary the monotony of
his task. When an individual becomes a factory employee, he has to
work long hours, leaving his farm and live near the factory, often in a
crowded district (Heidegger 1997).

The revolutionary change (life in modern times) for several centuries

was confined principally to the Western people, has in our lifetime
come to affect all of humanity. For the first time in history, a universal
pattern of modernity is emerging from the wide diversity of traditional

23
values, institutions, and people of all nations are confronted with the
challenge of defining their attitudes toward fundamental changes that
are worldwide in scope (more on academic exercise). The achievements
of human beings in the modern age provide unprecedented
opportunities for human welfare and fulfillment, but they have also
placed in the hands of humanity instruments of universal destruction
(Pettman, 2012).

How Human Relations are Transformed by Social Systems?

(Knowledge, Laws, Economics, and Technology)

A. New Knowledge

“Know thyself” is the main idea of Socrates of good

living around 469 BC in Greece. His saying,
“Knowledge is virtue, ignorance is vice” is a
summation of what he wants to teach about how
human beings should live a good life. Ignorance, as
opposite of knowledge, is the source of evil. Humanity commits evil
because people do not know any better.

The origins of the modern age may be seen in the phenomenal

growth of knowledge that can be traced to the revival of Greek
science. At first slowly, and with a rapid quickening of pace after
the 15th century, humanity has met with increasing success in
understanding the secrets of nature and applying this new
knowledge to human affairs. In the 20th century, this expansion has
been so rapid that local knowledge no longer remains purely local
and accepted systems of knowledge in specialized fields have been
overturned within a single generation. This process of intellectual
growth is continuing without any slackening of pace, and changes
in our understanding in the years ahead may well be greater than
those that we have seen in our own lifetime (Nye & Welch 2013).

B. Policy Making

Plato’s Dialogues in the Republic has

overshadowed all his other Dialogues in fame, for it
undoubtedly brought out the many-sidedness of his

24
genius no other Dialogue of his can aspire to do. It is for that very
reason that it has been looked upon as a masterpiece in world
literature. The Republic is a book on politics; however, it was found
difficult to define justice in an individual without studying the
broader perspective of the State. (ethical in origin). The art of
government leads on to the topic of education. However, the book
also became important for Eugenics and for Pedagogics because of
its refreshing discussion of poetics and aesthetics. Finally, due to his
idea of Good, the Republic became a great book on metaphysics as
well.

The nominal purpose of the Republic is to define “justice.” Plato

begins by deciding that the citizens are to be divided into three
classes:
1. The common people (artisan class)
2. The soldiers (warriors)
3. The guardians (rulers)
Republic also has to have political power. There are to be much fewer
of them than of the other two classes. In the first instance, they are
to be chosen by the legislator; after that, they will usually succeed by
heredity, but in exceptional cases, a promising child may be
promoted from one of the inferior classes; while among the children
of guardians a child or young man who is unsatisfactory may be
degraded (Johnston 2006).

At present one of the most important consequences of the application

of this new knowledge to human affairs has been increased
integration of policy making. In the private realm, systems of
transportation, communication, business, and education have

25
 tended to become larger and more centralized. Most communications
at the national level have become unified, and many are now
organized on a worldwide basis. Governments in the public realm
have increasingly tended to accumulate functions formerly performed
by the province, district, tribe, or family. Even the most tyrannical
governments in earlier times did not have the degree of control over
individuals that is now normally exercised by governments in
advanced societies. As life has become more complex, the legal
system has also grown to the point where almost all human activities
come in contact with the law in one form or another. This integration
of policy making has brought people within states into an
unprecedently closer relationship and has resulted in a greater
complexity of social organization.

C. Economic Sphere

The effects of new knowledge have been partially noticeable in the

economic sphere. Technical improvements have made possible a
mechanization of labor that has resulted in mass
production, the rapid growth in per capita
productivity, and an increasing division of labor.
A greater quantity of goods has been produced
during the past century in the entire preceding
period of human history. The contrast today
between the level of living in relatively modern
centuries and that in traditional societies is very narked, indeed.
Economic changes will be further discussed in its direct correlation
to the social realm (Ramos 2003; Nye & Welch 2013).

D. Social Realm

26
Equally important are the changes that have taken place in the
social realm. Traditional societies are typically closed and rigid in
their structure. The members of such societies are primarily
peasants living in relatively isolated villages, poor and illiterate, and
having little contact with the central political authorities. The way of
life of the peasants may remain virtually unchanged for centuries.
Modern knowledge and technology had an immense impact on the
traditional way of life. In a modern society, two-thirds or more of the
population lives in cities, and literacy is virtually universal
(homogenic society). People depends on individual achievements
more on inherited status.

Modernization
 Interrelated changes on humanity’s way of living.
 Part of the universal experience.
 It is one that holds great hope for the welfare of humanity.
 Destroyed traditional patterns in life, which had evolved through
the centuries many humane values.
 It has created a mass society where privacy, individualism, and
quality tend to be submerged by standards of taste and
administrative processes in which the expediency of public affairs
is frequently the determining factor.

As industrialization spreads from its seedbed out into societal

contexts, it carries with it more general societal ramifications. This
rise of global consciousness, along with higher levels of material
interdependence, increases the probability that the world will be

27
 reproduced as a single system (virtually universal access of media
which makes people in the society universal.)

Although the world is becoming more and more unified, it is not

becoming more and more integrated. While it is a single system, it
is driven by conflict and there is by no means universal agreement
on what shape the single system should take in the future;
globalization follows the path of its own inexorable logic. We are
immersed in a paradoxical situation. On the other hand, the
weight of nationalisms or regionalisms contribute to reinforce the
type of individualism that exludes the other, be it the other human
being or the other group. In other words, it is not always positive.
(e.g. different reactions and opinions on the issues seen in social
media).

E. Technology

The more society is influenced by technology, the more we need to

consider the social, ethical, technological, and scientific aspects of
each decision and choice (Germain 2000). This will require the
capability to consider and evaluate the standards employed in the
choice and implementation of scientific research and technological
development, in relation to the aspirations of the people. The ability
to evaluate the products of science and technology in relation to
culture and value, as well as the aspiration of a nation, is
important and needs to be nurtured and developed through social
and cultural education, for science and technology is much too
important to be left to engineers and economists alone.

28
Science has greatly influenced the picture we have of human
existence, and what is essential to humanity. Therefore, the
difficulty to the period of rapid change challenges us to discover
more about what is fundamental to our existence. Heidegger’s call
for meditative thinking or philosophical reflection
has a very important role in this connection.

Humanity in the present era does not live according

to the natural cycles regulated by natural rhythms
anymore (Germain 2000). Instead, it is governed by
a “second nature” that is an artificial environment
characterized by the results of technology (society
is developed by inventions). Technology is the replacement of
nature itself. The advancement of technology, its success, its
success in developing itself, is faced by the inability and lack of
humanistic knowledge to answer the real problems of masses such
as poverty, ignorance, and famine, which undermined the position
of humanistic science and efforts to develop it. Rationalistic and
positivistic ideas tend to take over all the understanding acquired
by reflection or even more, from faith (ideas are denied and
unacceptable).

It has to be admitted, that in this century, human success is

measured by success in mastering science and technology. Modern
people also cannot isolate themselves and live without technology.
More and more cases show that technology has encroached upon

29
all matters that in the past were considered to be the right of God
in his creation. Exact science and technology had functioned as the
“savior” with the power to set us free. They have saved and
liberated human beings from ignorance, underdevelopment, and
poverty. Technology is the symbol of human autonomy.

Human beings have separated themselves from their cosmic

relation and other realities. Modernization seems to be dominated
by a materialistic truth as opposed to a non-materialistic one.
Physical needs are prioritized even to the extent of destroying our
spirituality. (condition of civilization is dramatized). We have to
realize that science and technology were originally developed to
liberate people, and assist them in solving their problems in life.
Technology is out of control and could even destroy lives,
environment, isolate people, lose sensitivity and lost spiritual
contact with God and other people.

At present, science and technology is not

a single phenomenon, they have become
an ideology. In particular, technology
cannot be taken to mean only products
such as machinery and electronics. It is
also the knowledge and consciousness
and our powers of abstraction. Technology
is not taken as an object but as our whole
attitude toward the human world. In the modern era, this attitude
is manifested theoretically in scientific development and
technological innovation. In other words, science and technology is
the culture itself.

30
 LET’S SEE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED

Film Viewing
After watching the movie, answer the
following questions:
1.What does the society looks like as
the film depicts?
2.How do the characters perform their
roles as part of their society?
3.What are the qualities/traits
manifested by each characters to
determine their parts in their society?
4.In your perspective, what would you
feel if you were a part of this kind of
society?

POST TEST

Read the following items carefully. Write the

letter of your answer.

1. It.gives more focus on computer hardware, software and systems in

terms of contribution to society as basic tools enabling fast and
efficient transfer of information.

A. Information superhighway
B. Worldwide web
C. internet
D. tecnhnology

31
2. He said that we tend to conform to an image or idea associated with
being a certain type of person.

A. Ludwig Wittgenstein
B. Plato
C. Soren Kierkegaard
D. Socrates

3. It relies on our social relations.

A. oneness
B. harmony
C. unity
D. wholeness

4. He stated that the human person attains fulfilment in the realm of the
interpersonal, in meeting the other, through a genuine dialog.

A. Martin Buber
B. Martin Heidegger.
C. Nicolaus Copernicus
D. Socrates

5. In his time, Christianity began to lift Europe from the Dark Ages.

A. Charlemagne
B. Constantine
C. Clovis
D. Claudius

6. The way of life in the middle ages.

A. Rationalism
B. Feudalusm
C. Paganism
D. Baebarism

7. The man who started the reformation and developed the protestant
ethic.

A. Martin Luther
B. Martin Buber

32
 C. Martin Heidegger
D. Immanuel kant

8. He brought up his philosophic thoughts with the more general problem

of knowledge.

A. Immanuel Kant
B. Johannes Kepler
C. Jean Jacques Rousseau
D. Rene Descartes

9. Not a one-way process, but comprises the multilateral

interactions among global systems, local practices, transnational
trends, and personal lifestyles.

A. Global Phenomenon
B. Globalization
C. Rationalism
D. Empiricism

10. It is a movement in which machine changed people’s way of life

A. Industrial Revolution
B. Economic Revolution
C. Marxist Revolution
D. Machinery Revolution

33
 LET’S REMEMBER

Throughout history, society keeps on developing with the innovative

ideas of people (philosophers in particular) through their inventions
and discoveries that unify the perception of a person which leads to
each society’s development.
With the influence of globalization, modernization, and essence of
technology, our world progresses with the help of people who gave
contributions and ideologies to make a society well developed.
But problems are also rising when development takes place. It also
affects peoples’ way of thinking that contrasts the society’s purpose. In
spite of unity, it leads to individualism in which different perspectives,
ideologies, and actions take place that makes ideas separated and too
specific.
For the society to function properly, people should act and perform
their tasks properly to keep the society on its continuous development.

34
 REFERENCES

Ramos, C. C. R (2016). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person.

Rex Bookstore, Rex Printing Company. 1977 C. M. Recto Ave. Manila
Philippines

35
 This module maybe adopted, modified and
reproduced for educational purposes with appropriate
credit to the author.
For inquiries, feedback and suggestions, please
contact the author through the Division Learning
resource Supervisor at Tel. No. _________________ and/or
email address ________________ @deped.gov.ph

36
Pre-Test Post-Test

1. C 1. A
2. D 2. C
3. C 3. D
4. B 4. A
5. B 5. C
6. C 6. B
7. D 7. A
8. D 8. A
9. C 9. B
10. D 10. A

37