sts031 notes

first semester
Intellectual Revolutions

Science and Technology

a) Science
➢ The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and
behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation
➢ Body of knowledge
a. An intellectual study
✓ Systematic and practical study of the natural and physical world  systematic
observation, experimentation, etc.
b. An idea
✓ Ideas, theories, and all available systematic explanations and observation about the
natural and physical world
c. A body of knowledge
✓ Subject/ discipline/ field of study → process of learning about the natural and physical
worldop
✓ School science
d. A personal and social study
✓ Knowledge and activities → better understanding of the world around them
✓ Means to improve and survive in life
✓ Interwoven into people’s lives
b) Technology
➢ The application of scientific knowledge
Scientific Revolution
❖ A series of events → emergence of modern science (Europe, 16th – 17th century)
❖ Provide alternative explanation to certain phenomena
❖ Europe?
a) Invention of the printing machine
b) Blooming intellectual activities done in various places of learning
c) Growing number of scholars in various fields (Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Biology,
Chemistry) of human interests
❖ Changed views of society about naturae
❖ Reflect, rethink, and reexamine beliefs and way of life
❖ Death and persecution + golden age for science
❖ Societal transformation + Scientific Idea Formulation → Strong Modern Science Foundation
1) Nicolaus Copernicus
➢ Father of Modern Astronomy
➢ Heliocentric (Sun-centered) Model
✓ Earth orbits around the sun
✓ Mercury and Venus’ orbits inside Earth’s orbits, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter outside
 2) Charles Darwin
➢ Primates
✓ Grasping hands and feet (except humans)/ opposable thumb
✓ Binocular vision (overlapping FOV → true 3D depth perception/ stereoscopic vision)
➢ Father of Evolution
➢ On the Origin of Species: natural selection → species evolve over time → present traits and
adaptations → differentiate species
➢ The Descent of Man: man, monkey, apes, descend from some pre-existing form
3) Sigmund Freud
➢ Founder of Psychoanalysis
✓ An observational method: gather reliable data to study human’s inner life
✓ Scientific way: study human mind and neurotic illnesses
➢ Psychosexual Development → central element of Psychoanalytic Sexual Drive Theory
✓ Link between mental problems and sexual conflicts

Cradles of Early Science

Maya Civilization

❖ Lasted about 2000 years

❖ Incorporated understanding of astronomy → temples → astronomical observations
➢ El Castillo in Chichen Itza: at location of the sun during spring and fall equinoxes
➢ Eclipse prediction
➢ Astrological cycles → planting and harvesting
➢ 2 complicated calendar systems (2012 misinterpretation → end of its cycle)
❖ Hydraulic systems/ Ancient Canal System
➢ Under the temple of Inscriptions (Southern Chiapas State, ancient Maya City)
❖ Looms → weaving cloth
❖ Rubber
➢ 300 years before Goodyear received its patent (1844)
➢ Rubber Ball → bounced (without hands) through stone hoops
❖ Mayan hieroglyphics (written system)
❖ Mathematics skills → number system + concept of zero and positional value (independently developed)
Inca Civilization
❖ Roads paved stones
❖ Buildings surmounted earthquakes and other disasters
➢ Mortar-free stones → fit perfectly → protection from collapsing
❖ Irrigation system → grow crops in all types of land
❖ Calendar with 12 months → mark religious festivals + planting seasons
❖ Suspension bridge
❖ Quipu: record keeping system through knot-tying ropes
❖ Inca textiles
Aztec Civilization
❖ Mandatory education for everyone
➢ Calmecac: school for nobles
❖ Chocolates
 ➢ Mexico
➢ Cacao beans = highly valued = tribute to gods
❖ Antispasmodic medication
➢ Passion Flower → prevents muscle spasm + relaxes muscles → helpful during surgery
❖ Chinampa + Canoe invention
➢ Floating gardens for growing crops
➢ Light narrow boats for travelling
❖ Aztec calendar
➢ Ritual cycle of 260 days + 365-day civil cycle
➢ Plan activities, rituals, planting seasons
India

❖ Metallurgical works and manufacturing iron

➢ Iron = high regard in Roman Empire
➢ E.g., Coin of Samudragupta, Bronze Statue of Nataraja
❖ Ayurveda (ancient medical system)
➢ Ancient writings: natural and holistic approach → physical and mental health
➢ Plant products (also animal, metal, minerals) + diet + lifestyle (exercise, yoga, massage,
meditation) → balance 3 Dosha; equality results in health
➢ Susruta Samhita (Susruta’s Compendium)
✓ Describe surgical (rhinoplasty, kidney stone extraction, etc.) and other medical
procedures
❖ Astronomy, measurements, mathematics
➢ Theories on configuration of the Universe
➢ Spherical self-supporting earth
➢ Year with 360 days with 12 equal parts (30 days each)
➢ Jantar Mantar (Jaipur)
✓ one of the 6 major observatories →follow movement of sun and moon
✓ for mapping star positions
➢ Mohenjo Daro Ruler
✓ Accuracy within 0.13 mm
✓ History of Measurements: Indus Valley Civilization = ivory rulers (1500 B.C.)
1) Siddhanta Shiromani by Bhaskara
✓ Indian mathematician and anstronomer Bhaskara’s ((1114 – 1185) major treatise
✓ Calculation of the occurences of eclipses
✓ Determination of Earth’s circumference
✓ The Sun is a Star
2) Aryabhata
✓ Aryabhatiya, Aryabhata (476 – 550)
✓ Mathematician-astronomer
✓ Introduced a number of trigonometric functions, tables, and techniques + algebraic
algorithms
3) Brahmagupta
✓ Gravity = force of attraction
✓ Zero (0) = placeholder and digit + result of subtracting a number with itself
4) Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1340 – c. 1425)
✓ Mathematician-astronomer
 ✓ Founder of mathematical analysis
✓ Algebra and calculus
✓ Trigonometric functions expressed in infinite series
✓ Newton: rediscovery of sine and cosine series
✓ Madhava-Leibniz Series

China
❖ Influenced Korea, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and other countries in
the Old Silk Road (ancient trade route)
❖ Traditional medicine
➢ Various medical properties and uses of different plants and animals – cure illnesses
➢ acupuncture
❖ Compass
❖ Papermaking
❖ Printing tools
❖ Gunpowder (firecrackers to drive evil spirits away)
❖ Iron plough
❖ Wheelbarrow
❖ Propellers
❖ Different bridge models
❖ First seismological detector
❖ Dry dock facility
❖ Astronomy
➢ Supernovas
➢ Lunar and solar eclipses
➢ Comets
➢ Heavenly bodies + effect on weather changes and seasons → affect daily life
➢ Lunar calendar
➢ Seismology
Middle East
❖ Golden Age of Islam (7th – 13th century)  cultural, economic, and scientific flourish
❖ Intellectualization of Muslims due to:
a) Common Arabic language
b) Access to Greek texts
c) Proximity to India
❖ Emphasis on Science experiments
❖ Contributions in the field of:
1. Physics (Optics)
2. Chemistry
3. Medicine
4. Mathematics
5. Astronomy
6. Philosophy
1) Ibn Al-Haytham
➢ Alhazen
➢ Mathematician, Astronomer, Physicists
➢ Father of Optics
➢ Experiments → verify theories
2) Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
➢ Father of Algebra
➢ Algebra  Al-jabr (part of title of book)
 ➢ Fundamental algebraic methods and techniques in solving equations
➢ Oversaw translation of major Greek and Indian mathematics astronomical works
3) Jabir Ibn Hayyan
➢ Father of Arabic Chemistry
➢ A Muslim alchemist
➢ Qualitative analysis of substances
4) Ibn Sina
➢ A.k.a. Avicenna (latinized name), Prince of Physicians
➢ Book of Healing and the Cannon of Medicine = standard medicinal texts in Muslim world and
Europe (17th century)
➢ Discovery of contagious diseases + Introduction of clinical pharmacology
Africa (Egypt)

❖ Natural resources = minerals, fertile lands

❖ Science = prior to European colonization
❖ Contributed to fields of Astronomy, Metallurgy, and Mathematics
➢ Three types of calendars
1. Lunar
2. Solar
3. Stellar (combination of three)
➢ North Africa + Nile Valley → import technology from east region → benefit from development in
Bronze – Iron age
✓ Metal tools → homes, agriculture, architecture
➢ Lebombo bone
✓ 29 notches
✓ Tool for multiplication, division, and simple mathematical calculation/ six-month lunar
calendar
❖ Advancements in astronomy, mathematics, and medicine
❖ Center of alchemy, forerunner in chemistry
❖ Human anatomy and pharmacology (examination, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis)
❖ Geometry → rectilinear structure, post and lintel architecture, structures → improve quality of life
❖ Mummification
❖ Calendar
➢ Based on flooding of the Nile
➢ 365 days in a year, 12 months, 3 weeks in a month, 10 days in a week, 5 extra days in the start
of the New year
❖ Papermaking from papyrus plant

Science, Technology, and Nation-Building

Historical Background
❖ Pre-Hispanic Period
➢ Culture and traditions
✓ Datu
 Maharlika
Timaua
Alipin
✓ Boxer Codex
✓ Bahay Kubo
➢ Belief systems
✓ Bathala
✓ Laon
✓ Babaylan (Priestess)
➢ Indigenous knowledge system
➢ Baybayin
➢ Science embedded in the way of life of people
✓ plant crops
✓ take care of animals
✓ predict seasons and climates (based on movement of heavenly bodies)
✓ organize days into months and years
✓ Prepare soil for agriculture
✓ Discover medicinal use of plants (herbolario)
➢ Technology used to:
✓ Build homes
✓ Build irrigation
✓ Develop tools (for planting, hunting, cooking, fishing, fighting enemies)
✓ Transport (land and waterways)
✓ Create musical instruments
➢ Archeological artifacts (Metal Age)
✓ Technological ideas in sophisticated designs of gold and silver in jewelry, ceramics, and
metal tools
➢ Trade with China, Indonesia, Japan, and neighboring countries → opportunities for
technological exchange
➢ Indigenous Science/ Folk Science
❖ Hispanic Period
➢ Beginning of formal science and technology
✓ Schools for boys and girls (subjects and disciplines)
➢ Understanding science concepts related to the human body, plants, animals, and heavenly
bodies
➢ Technology: development of house tools for daily use
➢ Modernized life
➢ Adaptation of western technology and way of life
➢ Improvisation of Spanish technology + indigenous materials
➢ Introduction of medicine and advanced science in formal colleges and universities (established
by Roman Catholic religious orders)
➢ Galleon trade → additional technology and development
✓ Ideas, crops, tools, cultural practices, technology, and Western practices reach country
➢ Filipino students contributed to medicine, engineering, arts, music and literature advancements
➢ One of the centers of global trade in Southeast Asia
✓ People’s superstitious beliefs + Catholic doctrines → halted growth of Science in the
country
❖ American Period
➢ More influence (than Spaniards)
✓ Public education system
✓ Improved engineering works + health conditions of people
✓ Modern research university (University of the Philippines)
✓ More hospitals
➢ Exploitation of mineral resources
 ➢ Improvement of transportation and communication systems
➢ “Americanization” of the country + reorganized science learning
✓ Introduction of Science in private and public schools
✓ Basic Education: Science = nature studies + science + sanitation
✓ Improvement and modernization of higher education
Researches to control malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, etc. (other tropical diseases)
➢ Scholars introducing new knowledge and technology
➢ Protestant Church missions bringing hospitals and schools
❖ World War II
➢ Destabilization of the country
✓ Burning of institutions and public facilities and houses
✓ Destruction of lives
➢ Difficulty in rebuilding country from war
➢ Reparation funds → building institutions and public facilities (schools, hospitals, transportation
systems, highways) + providing technological training and human resource development in the
country
✓ Human resources – more engineers, scientists, technology experts, doctors, and other
professions in the country
➢ Establishment of New Republic: limited resources used in improving science and technological
capability of country; use of ODA (Overseas Development Allocations) from different countries

Government Policies
❖ Programs, projects, and policies → boost science and technology
❖ Goal
➢ Prepare the whole country and its people to meet the demands of a technology-driven world +
capacitate people to live in a world driven by science
❖ ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
➢ “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”
➢ Myanmar Indonesia
Thailand Laos
Cambodia Vietnam
Singapore Malaysia
Brunei Philippines
➢ ASEAN 2015 Agenda: government (DOST) → expertise of National Research Council of the
Philippines (NCRP) → consult various societal sectors → prepare meeting goals:
✓ 4 Policies (clustered by NCRP)
1. Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, International Policies, and Governance
o ASEAN awareness, mother tongue
2. Physics, Engineering, and Industrial Research, Earth and Space Sciences, and
Mathematics
o Emphasizing degrees, licenses, and employment opportunities, review of
R.A. 9184 (procurement act)
3. Medical, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Sciences
o Allocating 2% of GDP to research
o Legislating a law supporting human genome projects
4. Biological Sciences, Agriculture, and Forestry
o Protecting and conserving biodiversity by full implementation of existing
laws
o Promoting knowledge systems and indigenous people’s conservation
✓ Other existing programs supported by government (through DOST)
1. Providing funds for basic research (also from ODA)
2. Creating Science and Technology parks
3. Providing scholarships for undergraduate and graduate studies (more doctoral
graduates in the field of science and technology
4. Establishing branches of the Philippine Science High School System
5. Balik Scientists Program (R.A. 11035)
6. National Science Complex and National Engineering Complex
7. Philippine – American Academy of Science and Engineering

➢ Areas/ Fields of Research

1. Use of alternative and safe energy
2. Harnessing mineral resources
3. Finding cure for various diseases and illnesses
 4. Climate change and global warming
5. Increasing food production
6. Preservation of natural resources
7. Coping with natural disasters and calamities
8. Infrastructure development

Filipino Scientists

Human Flourishing
Indigenous Science and Technology in the Philippines
❖ Indigenous
➢ Produced, growing, living, or occurring natively or naturally in a particular region or
environment
➢ Notion of a place-based ethnic culture that has not migrated from its homeland + not a settler/
colonial population
❖ Developed certain practices + invented tools → help them in their everyday life
Ideas → explain various phenomena (Indigenous Knowledge -foundation of → Indigenous Science)
➢ Indigenous knowledge → embedded in daily life of people (interwoven into culture, evident in
daily life stories, poems, songs)
1) Predicting weather conditions and seasons using knowledge in observing animal behavior and celestial
bodies
2) Using herbal medicine
3) Preserving food
4) Classifying plants and animals into families and groups based on cultural properties
5) Preserving and selecting good seeds for planting
6) Using indigenous technology in daily lives
7) Building local irrigation systems
8) Classifying different types of soil for planting based on cultural properties
9) Producing wine and juices from tropical fruits
10) Keeping the custom of growing plants and vegetables in the yard
Human Flourishing
❖ Effort to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger community of
individuals (each with the right to pursue his or her own such efforts) (national league for nursing)

❖ Aristotle: dedicated (most of) his life promoting concept of human flourishing
➢ Ethics: each person has innate responsibility to strive, develop, and become his/her best self
(eudaimonia or human flourishing)
➢ Seligman (2014): “Flourishing is the purist of all human endeavors and is the purpose of a well-
lived life.”
➢ Living the richest life one can by being virtuous
❖ Ancient idea: happiness/ flourishing = end of human action
 ➢ E.g., contemporary theorists: happiness is subjective matter, morality is chiefly other-regarding,
and that the pursuit of one’s own good (far from being the purpose of moral action) is often
with morality
❖ Eudaimonia
➢ Good spirited
➢ Human flourishing
➢ Result of different components (i.e., phronesis, friendship, wealth, and power  acquiring
these will bring seeker happiness → allow them to partake in greater notion, the good)

➢ Rational judgment
➢ Supreme good (or happiness) = lead life → enables us to use and develop our reason
(accordance with reason)

❖ The Scientific Method

1) Observation
2) Determine the problem/question
3) Formulate hypothesis
4) Conduct an experiment/ testing hypothesis
5) Formulate a conclusion
a) Verification Theory
✓ Earliest criterion that distinguishes between philosophy and science
✓ Idea: science only takes into account measurable results and repeatable experiments
b) Falsification Theory (ad ignoratiam)
✓ As long as ideology is not proven false + best explain phenomenon over alternative
theories
✓ Encourages research to determine which theory can stand test of falsification
➢ How much is too much>
✓ Economists: growth = primary indicator of development, but at what cost?
The Good Life
❖ Ancient Greece (before “science” was coined): need to understand the world and reality + need to
understand self and the good life = bound together
➢ Plato: task of understanding things in the world – parallel → job of truly getting into what will
make the soul flourish
➢ Aristotle: distinction between theoretical (logic, biology, physics, metaphysics) and practical
science (ethics, politics)
✓ Theoretical Science: aims for the truth
 Practical Science: aims for the “good”
✓ (Every attempt) to know – connected (in ways) → (in an attempt) find the good/
attainment of human flourishing.
Find the truth about what is good → locate that which is good
❖ Man = constantly in pursuit of the good life
➢ Own perspective on what comprises of a good life
➢ Science and Technology = forefront of finding happiness
➢ Question: Is Science is taking the right path toward attaining what it really means to live a good
life?
Aristotle and How We All Aspire for a Good Life
❖ First thinker: complex problematization of the end goal of life as happiness
❖ Plato (his teacher & predecessor): things in world are not real, copies of the real (in World of Forms)
Aristotle: world is all there is to it, world is all the reality we can access
Plato: change is puzzling → only two realities: World of Forms (entities are only copies of the ideal and
the models, forms are the only entities) & World of Matter (things are changing and impermanent)
Aristotle: disagrees, no reality over and above what senses can perceive
➢ Change is inherent in things
Humans (along with other entities in world): start as potentialities → forward to actualities
❖ Human beings are potentialities who aspire for their actuality
➢ Moves according to some end
➢ Action → function of the purpose that the person has
➢ Aspires for an end (happiness/ human flourishing)
School of Thoughts
1) Materialism
➢ Human flourishing: matter → makes us attain happiness
➢ First: atomists in Ancient Greece
✓ Democritus and Leucippus: led school (primarily belief: world is make up of and is
controlled by tiny indivisible units, atomos or seeds)
✓ World + human beings  matter
✓ Atomos → come together randomly → form things in the world → only material entities
matter
2) Hedonism
➢ End life goal: acquiring pleasure
➢ Life = obtaining and indulging in pleasure  life is limited
➢ Mantra: “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die”
➢ Epicurus (leader)
➢ Do not subscribe to notion of afterlife (similar to materialists)
3) Stoicism
➢ Being totally free from pathe (emotions and passions, especially pain, fear, desire, pleasure)
➢ Generate happiness → distance oneself + become apathetic (careful practice of apathy)
✓ Condition of being totally free from the emotions and passions (especially pain, fear,
desire, and pleasure)
✓ Some things are not within our control
➢ Goal: freedom from passion (ancient sense, “anguish” or “suffering”)  pursuit of reason and
“apatheia” (apathy, ancient sense of being objective, unemotional, and having clear judgment)
4) Religion
➢ Communion with God
➢ Theism (Greek – theos; god)
➢ Happiness  communion with God
✓ World = temporary reality; wait for ultimate return to the hands of God
a) Monotheism (Abrahamic religion)
b) Polytheism
c) Atheism
5) Humanism

➢ Man’s freedom = carve his own destiny + legislate his own laws, free from shackles of a god
that monitors and controls
➢ See themselves as individuals = in control of themselves and world outside
➢ Most scientists: world is a place and space for seeking ways to improve the lives of its
inhabitants