LPU-St.

Cabrini School of Health

Sciences, Inc. C-GESTS
Lumbres, Ma. Janna Lyka M. I BSN 2-1 Prof. Shin Akiko A. Kashiwagi

Lesson 1- INTERACTION OF SCIENCE, STS INTERACTON THROUGH TIME

TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY THROUGH CASE STUDY 1: Birth Pains (1000s-1200s)
TIME  Science: Aristotelian Philosophy
(Basic intuition, Aristotelian Chemistry
WHAT WILL BE STUDIED IN SCIENCE, shows only 4 elements – Earth, Water,
TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY (STS)? Fire, Air)
 Unlike what the course title suggests, this  Technology: Primitive (Stones, Wood)
course will not focus on the individual fields  Society: Religious, Thomas Aquinas as
of science, technology, and society but more central figure in authority
on their interactions through time.
Outcomes:
UNDERSTANDING SCIENCE:  Stagnated development of science (no one
 Way of knowing dared attack Aristotelian Philosophy as it was
 Seeks answers in consonance with Religion)
 Finds explanations  Example (1500s-1600s): Nicolas
 Arrives at an understanding of the world Copernicus’ theory on Helicentrism was
and other factors shunned. Galileo Galilei who proved this was
put under house arrest in fear of subversive
UNDERSTANDING TECHNOLOGY: scientific theories against God and religion
 Control
 Alter, modify, tamper, with the natural world STS INTERACTON THROUGH TIME CASE
 Troubleshoot STUDY 2: First Industrial Revolution
 Practical application/usage of science  Science: Power Generation, New Materials,
Newtonian Mechanics, Economics
UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY:  Technology: Machines in mining,
 Group of people manufacturing, construction, transportation
 Values, morals, prejudices, ethics, law and communication
 Problems and priorities  Society: English, Mass Production, Rise of
Working/Proletariat Class, Art and Culture
BASIC INTERACTION OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY: Outcomes:
 The development of science brings the  Socialist Revolution of the Working Class
development of new technology (i.e. (new machines generated many workers who
Computer Science, Mechanics, and were exploited for their labor)
Mathematics ushered the development of the  Rising consciousness leading to different
Computer) social issues (i.e. Alan Turing, the father of
 The development of new technology is used computers, committed suicide due to a
to verify and further explore scientific homophobic society)
theories and hypotheses (i.e. the development
of the telescope widened Galileo’s scope of STS INTERACTON THROUGH TIME CASE 3:
astrophysics) Modern Times
 Science: Computer Programming, Software
BASIC INTERACTION OF TECHNOLOGY Development, Data Science, Machine
AND SOCIETY: Learning
 The development of new technology is used  Technology: Laptops, Cellphones,
by society to meet its demands (machines to Robotics, Social Networking
hasten the production and processing of raw  Society: Technology-dependent generation
materials)
 Society is the one which creates technology Outcomes:
 Society is also the biggest  In terms of politics, modern technology has
limitation/constraint to the development of been pivotal in ushering politicians into
technology power through manipulation of information

Science, Technology and Society I Page 1 of 11

  In culture, modern technology has created a Technology
culture of leniency, passivity, and  Sticks, stones, wood for essentials
dependence

Lesson 2: Science, Technology, and Society Society

Through History  Communal, shared, equal

(Historical antecedents in which social considerations Outcomes?

changed the course of science and technology)  Period of early discoveries - Laid the
foundations for the development (and also
Interaction of Science, Technology, and Society the stagnant nature) of science
varies with:
1. Geography Slave and Feudal Societies
2. Global Affairs  Ancient Civilizations under different
3. Time slave/feudal societies
 Rome, Babylon, Egypt, China, Greece
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
 A perspective of the material world and Babylonian Society (2300 BC)
society proposed by Karl Marx and Frederick  Ancient Mesopotamia
Engels  Founded by ancient Akkadian-speaking
 All material things are born from people of southern Mesopotamia
CONTRADICTIONS  Small port town on the Euphrates River
 Largest cities of the ancient world
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM  Rule of Amorite King Hammurabi (1972 to
 A perspective of viewing history by 1750 BC) - Code of Hammurabi - Centuries
analyzing the classes in society and its later, Neo-Babylonian empire was
relation to the modes of production established
 Heavily Religious (i.e. Marduk)
1. PRIMITIVE COMMUNAL  Well-established but short-lived due to
 A classless society with backwards Persian colonization
technology and production
2. SLAVE SOCIETY Babylonian Science
 A society wherein materials are still shared,  All practical and devoid of any abstract
but slaves and slave-owners ushered. reasoning such as theorems or proofs
3. FEUDAL SOCIETY  Advanced Mathematics and Physics
 Relationships were derived from holding of (sexagesimal, Pythagorean theorem)
land in exchange for labor  Astronomy and astrology
4.MERCANTILISM
 Science were used for the king – astrology
 Benefits of profitable trading,
made temporal predictions for societal
commercialism. decisions
5. CAPITALISM
 Characterized by mass production and Babylonian Technology
private ownership over the means of  Writing
production Bourgeoisie and Proletariat
 Wheel
Working Class
 Siege Weapons
STS during The Ancient Ages  Agriculture (irrigation, bronze metal, pottery,
weaving)
Primitive Society  Calendar
Science  Walls of Babylon
 Fundamentals, elements, mythology, early  Hanging Gardens of Babylon
religion
 Egyptian Society (3100 BC)

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  Located along the Nile River  Differential Gears
 Heavily respected gods (Ra, Osiris, Isis).  Crane
 Al laws were enacted at the discretion of the  Plumbing
pharaoh  Urban Planning
 Pharaoh  Light house
 Government Officials – Nobles, Priests  Analog Computers
 Soldier  Etc
 Scribes
 Merchants Greek Science (800 BC)
 Artisans  Thales, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato
 Farmer  Science and Philosophy
 Slaves and Servant  Logic
 Mathematics
Egyptian Science  Deductive
 Calendar  Astronomy
 Akhet – July 19  Scientific Progress
 Peret – November 16  Laid the foundations as Aristotle’s
 Shemu – Mach 17 contributions became an authority and
 5 Days – July 14 to 18 remained unchallenged as late as the modern
 Astronomy age
 Duat
 Mathematics Roman Society (753 BC)
 Decimals  Began as a small village in Central Italy’s
 Arithmetic, Hieroglyphics Tiber River
 Fractions  Grew and expanded into the entire
 Medicine Mediterranean Sea after centuries
 Magic spells with remedies  Feudal. Political, military, and cultural
(amulets) superpower which shaped Western
 Mummification Civilization
 Divided into three periods:
Egyptian Technology  Regal (Monarchy)
 Papyrus  Republican (Republican – Consuls)
 Irrigation using mud leeves  Imperial (Rise and fall of Roman
 Mastaba and Pyramids Empire)
 Ships  Slow and steady expansion

Greek Society (800 BC) Roman Technology

 Classes/Social Hierarchy: aristocrat citizens,  Aqueducts
businessmen, women, children, semi-free  50,000-mile long road system
laborers, slaves
 Male dominance Roman Science
 City-state (polis) – institutions of  Latin
government, religion, and learning were  Art and Architecture Influences
housed  Gladiator Combat
 Formal education  Rise of Christianity (Constantine I)
 Polytheistic religion
 Dependence of imported goods Chinese Society
 Feudal economy
Greek Technology
 Archimedes Screw
 Streets
 Cartography
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  Social Structure: In conclusion…

Chinese Sciences
 Traditional Medicine
 Astronomy
 Sciences
 Philosophy (“anti-science?”) Lesson 3: The Scientific Revolution
 Social Contexts of Practicioners
Thomas Kuhn
Chinese Technology Just a Theory
 The Old Silk Road  Identified the paradigm shift
 Ships
The Structure of Scientific Revolution
 Compass
 Different sciences undergo “revolution”
 Papermaking
when scientists gather enough data that they
 Printing
can’t explain using their current paradigm, or
 Gunpowder unstated, world- organizing theory about how
 Iron Plough the universe works.
 Wheelbarrow
 Propeller
 Different Materials for Trade

STS in the Middle Age

First Industrial Revolution
 Science: Power Generation, New Materials,
Newtonian Mechanics, Economics
 Technology: Machines in mining,
manufacturing, construction, transportation
and communication
 Society: English, Mass Production, Rise of
Working/Proletariat Class, Art and Culture

STS in the Modern Age

STS in times of heightened Capitalism
 Science: Data Science, Engineering,
Mathematics, etc.
 Technology: Artificial Intelligence, Hi-tech
Machines, Mass Production
 Society: Profit accumulation, over
production, war

Claudius Ptolemy – 100AD –Geocentrism

Nicole Oresme
 “Where are we?”

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  He pioneered the use of mathematical
graphs to describe how objects move
through space over time. And he scooped
Galileo on the physics of falling objects,
again by well over a century!
Nicolaus Copernicus
Just a Theory
 A mathematician and astronomer who
formulated a model of the universe that
places the Sun rather than the earth at the
center of the universe.
 Ultimately, Copernicus proposed a biologically
heliocentric cosmos: in this model, the earth
rotates on its axis once every twenty-four
hours, and the earth revolves around the sun
once every year.
 Commentariolus
 Ptolemians and Christians
 Heliocentrism was blasphemous
 On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies
Aristarchus of Samos
Just a Theory
 A pioneer for heliocentrism
 Copernicus hypothesized that his theory must
be a better-fit model for the cosmos than the
geocentrism of Ptolemy, because a sun-
centered model was more “pleasing to the
mind.” And Copernicus’s theory was so
pleasing!
Copernicus = Revolutionary?
The book was only a thought experiment: it didn’t
need to be true to help astronomers better understand
the math behind the motions of the planets, and thus
make better predictions about them it didn’t even
need to be probable.
How Europeans answered big questions such as
“where are we?” really started to change around the
middle of the 1500s. By the middle of 1600s, natural
philosophers had developed new methods of making
all kinds of knowledge. We dub this shift, “THE
SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION!”
Science Changes Our Understanding in 2 ways:
 Extrovert – understanding of the world
 Introvert – understanding of the self
Astronomically, mankind was not the center.
“Radical transformation of ideas”
Theory of Evolution “The Origin of Species”
5-year Voyage
 Changed the concept of the creation of
humans
 All spices of life have evolved over the years
from common ancestors through natural
selection – “Evolution”
Humanity was displaced astronomically and
Rene Descartes
 I think therefore, I am
 Cogitoergosum
Sigmund Freud
 Pioneered Psychoanalysis
 Explored the Unconscious Mind
 Focused on Human sexuality and the evil
nature of man
 Release of repressed emotions
Blaise Pascal
 “All of our dignity then, consists of
thought”
Pascalina
 Relieved us not only of mental work, but also
our central role as the only smart agents un
the infosphere.
Turning Machine
 The era of Modern Computer –Alan Turing
What now is the central role of humanity?
Humanities, Social Science, and Religion
 Although science may solve the problem of
how the universe began, it cannot answer the
question:
 Why does the universe bother to exist?
Lesson 4: Science and Technology in Nation
Building in the Philippine Context
A brief overview of Philippine S&T
Influences in the development of Science &
Technology in the Philippines
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  Agriculture
Brief History of Science and Technology in the  Resources
Philippines  Calamities
 Infrastructure
Pre-colonial Period
 Indigenous Knowledge Lesson 5: HUMAN FLOURISHING IN
 Traditional and Communal SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Spanish Colonial Period HUMAN FLOURISHING

 Schools  It is important to build a philosophy as to
 Galeon Trade what constitutes a good life.
 Agricultural Dev’t for Spaniards
HOW DO I LIVE A GOOD LIFE? - Aristotle on
American Colonial Period “Flourishing”
 Higher Education
 Trade Policies Eudaimonia “good-spirited”
 Dependence  Pinnacle of happiness to be achieved by
Post-colonial humans
 Lack of Industrialization  “human flourishing”
 Foreign Dependence  Flourish through cultivating virtues
 Brain Drain
Doctrine of the Golden Mean
Influences in the development of Science &  Cowardice -Courage- Recklessness
Technology in the Philippines  Stinginess-Generosity-Profligacy

Internal  Virtues according to Aristotle’s

 Survival Nichomachean Ethics to gain phronesis,
 Culture friendship, power
 Economic Activities
As times changed, technology developed, and
External elements that comprised human flourishing also
 Foreign Colonizers changed.
 Foreign Trading
 International Economic Demands Humans are now expected to be a “man of the
world.” This shows how different Western and
Science and Technology in the Philippines Now: Eastern concepts of human flourishing is.

“There are many philosophies to a good life. What

matters is determining the truth behind our existence
to guide us in how to live a good life.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN

FLOURISHING
 Every discovery contributes to our pool of
human knowledge. The business of
uncovering the secrets of the universe
answers the question of our existence.
Fields to Focus on for Philippine S&T
 Energy PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
 Mining  How Science deals with knowledge and truth
 Health
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
 Transportation

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  Objectivity brought upon by an arbitrary,
rigid methodology whose very character
absolves it from any accusation of prejudice
 The scientific method presents a general idea
of science
 Science vs Pseudoscience
Many scientific discoveries were being made, but no
one was asking what science is and how it deals with
finding the truth.
Karl Popper “Not all scientific achievements were
created equal”
 Taught about nature of knowledge and how
to test it
 Freud: uses past data to predict the present;
Einstein: predicted the future state of affairs
Recall and Compare:
 Freud’s Psychoanalysis
 Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
The traditional understanding of the scientific
method: to look at the world with a scientific eye is to
observe with no preconceived notions
Karl Popper
 Developed the Falsification theory in
contrast to the Verification theory
 Argued that everyone has preconceived
notions of some kind
 Convinced that Freud’s methods were
pseudoscience
According to Popper, it is only by seeking to disprove
Santa’s existence that you can demonstrate his
unreality.
When we begin to test a theory, do we confirm it or
deconfirm it?
FALSIFICATION VS VERIFICATION:
 It’s easy to find verification of a theory if
you’re looking for it
 Verification should only count if it is for
risky predictions
 Every false belief we discover is actually
good, because that gets us much closer to
believing only true things
 Only genuine test of a theory is to falsify it
 Irrefutable theories are not scientific
 Be willing to let beliefs go: testable,
refutable, falsifiable
However, both falsification and verification are not
perfect. It is argued that instead, science is also a
social endeavor concerned with results
THINK ABOUT IT!
 Theorize that all of us humans are simply in
a simulation being controlled by someone
and we do not really have free will. How will
you disprove this theory? Is it possible? If
not, does that mean it is true?
Some quests for truth are inaccessible to merely
humans alone. This is why technology was developed
to assist humans in the quest for truth
PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY
Questions concerning technology by Martin
Heidegger
 Doctrine states that technology is a means to
an end and a human activity.
 However, according to Heidegger,
technology must be understood as a way of
revealing
Technology as a way of revealing:
 Alètheuein – discover, uncover,
unconcealment
 Poeisis - Technology is a way of bringing
forth the truth in a poetic/harmonious
relationship with nature
 Techne – art and skill, whatever truth is
uncovered, it will be something more
meaningful than the superficial use of
technology
Technology as a way of revealing:
 Thus according to Heidegger, technology
should be defined as a skill or way of art
which brings forth and unconceals the truth
about the nature and ourselves.
Poeisis: Applicable to Modern Technology?
 Modern technology is very aggressive in its
activity
 Modern technology reveals nature as a
reserve. It challenges nature and demands its
resources by forcibly extracting them for
human consumption and storage
 Revealing never comes to an end. Revealing
always happens on our own terms
Poeisis vs Enframing: Way of Revealing in
Modern Technology
Science, Technology and Society l Page 7 of 11
  This enframing makes unconcealment not in
harmony with nature. Unconcealment are
only in terms of man, even if it is aggressive
against nature
 Calculative thinking vs Meditative thinking
 People prefer enframing for security and
control, even if it is violent
Humanity swallowed by Technology – fails to
acknowledge the forceful and negative effects of
technology for the sake of unconcealment
What then is our solution? Since modern technology
now forcefully unconceals, should we just remove
technology altogether?
According to Heidegger: 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.
Art as A Way Out of Enframing
 Enframing blocks poeisis
 Art is a way out of enframing
 When meditatively looking at technology,
one will begin to question its significance in
his/her life more than its instrumental use
 Technology solves problems, but it must be
questioned
 Calculative thinking in which we perceive in
a scientific nature is important, but
meditative thinking allows us to stay rooted
to our essence
We ponder technology and question it. In so doing,
we become aware of the crisis we have plunged the
Earth into. The danger is made present and more
palpable through our art and poetry. Amid this
realization, we remain hopeful, because poetically
man dwells upon this Earth
Lesson 7: Examining the Good life
1. The Quest for a Good Life
 Man is constantly in pursuit of the good life.
Flourishing
 According to Aristotle, every human person
aspires for an end. This end is happiness or
human flourishing. We all want to be
happy.
2. Happiness as the Goal of a Good Life
 Achieving human flourishing through
happiness
Greatest Happiness Principle
 According to John Stuart Mill, an action is
right as far as it maximizes the attainment of
happiness for the greatest number of people.
Mining and Fuel
 Think about it. Many are against mining and
fuel but does it bring happiness to the
majority of the people?
Recall Heidegger’s Enframing vs Poeisis
 According to Martin Heidegger, only
thinking of mankind’s happiness is
dangerous. It leads to abuse and struggle with
nature and the external world.
So, how should we live the good life?
3. Different school of thought in living a good life
Materialism
 Came from atomists in Ancient Greece
Democritus and Leucippus
 Atomos comes together to form things
 Material entities matter - Material wealth
attains happiness. Objects are the meaning of
life
 Movie: Confessions of a Shopaholic
Hedonism
 Led by Epicurus
 Meaning of life is to acquire pleasure
 Life is limited
 “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we
die.”
 Does not believe in afterlife
 Movie: American Pie
Stoicism
 Also led by Epicurus
Science, Technology and Society l Page 8 of 11
  To be happy, one must learn to distance
oneself and be apathetic or indifferent
 Accept that some things are not in our control
 Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Theism
 God as fulcrum of existence
 Based on the entity of Heaven
 Ultimate basis of happiness is communion
with God
 World is temporary, we return to God in the
end
 Movie: God’s Not Dead
Humanism
 Freedom of man to carve his own destiny
 Happiness is achieved by freeing oneself
from shackles of religion and society
 “Captain of my own ship, master of my own
soul”
 We can freely unearth the planet to improve
the lives of inhabitants
 Movie: The Danish Girl
“As a result of humanism, scientists turned to
technology to ease the difficulty of life.
4. Technology and Good Life
 Attempts at altering the world for the benefit
of humanity
Whether or not we agree with these technological
advancements, these are all undertaken in the hopes
of attaining the good life. The balance, however,
between the good life, ethics, and technology has to
be attained.
Lesson 7: When Technology and Humanity Cross
Our Lives Are Increasingly Entangled with
Technology
 Technology as a form of necessity
 Technology has become an inevitable part of
society
 Technology makes life easier and more
convenient
 Enhances human well-being in areas such as
medical research and treatment, in our
transport system, in social care settings and
in efforts to protect the environment.
In some aspects, this entanglement can lead to
worrying prospects
 Too much technology can be bad.
 Various ethical dilemmas have been
identified throughout time involving the use
of different technological devices and its
effects to humanity.
 Usually, different problems arise when:
1. Technology is misused or;
2. In the first place, it was invented to
produce bad results.
 In this lesson, we will examine several
technologies. Specifically, the roles they
play in society and their effects to humanity.
Examining the Television Sets
History of the TV
1800s
 Paul Gottlieb Nipkow
 Successfully sent images through
wires with the aid of a rotating metal
disk. This was called the “electric
telescope” which has 18 lines of
resolution.
1907
 Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton
 Boris Rosing
 Created a new system of television
by using the cathode ray tube in
addition to the mechanical scanner
system
Role of Television Sets
1. Television is mainly used as a platform for
advertisements and information
dissemination.
2. Television is also used for recreational
activities and stress reliever for most
Filipino families.
3. Television also has a big impact in spreading
different propagandas and advocacies.
In the Philippines:
 92% of urban homes and
 70% of rural homes own a television set
 15.135 million households own a TV set
 TV is ultimate medium for advertisement
placements.
Examining the Mobile Phones
History of the Mobile Phone:
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
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  First commercial mobile phone made public
in 1983 invented by: Martin Copper (made
the world’s first phone call on April 3. 1973)
Roles of Mobile Phones
 Compute
 Surfing the net
 Store Files
 Online Shopping
 Navigate
 Take Pictures
 Call People
 Organize Documents
 Social Networking
 Texting
Mobile Phone in the Philippines
 67% of Filipinos own a mobile phone
 Mobile phones considered a “must have”
among youth
 119M counted mobile phone subscribers
 30% of Filipinos see mobile phone as
necessity
Examining Computers & Laptops
History:
1837
 Charles Babbage invents the Analytical
Engine
 The Engine served as the basic framework of
computers even three generations later.
Osborne 1
 Osborne 1 was the first portable computer. It
was believed that the transition from a
computer to laptop was just a matter of design
and innovation. From that moment on, the
evolution of laptops continued.
Role of the Laptop & Computer:
 Many of the laptop’s functions are actually
present in a mobile phone. However, laptops
have wide screens and separate keyboards.
Because of this people prefer to use it for
gaming and work. However, it is not
portable.
A Profile of Internet Users in the Philippines
 Mobile phone subscription is at 119 M
 Filipinos spend approximately 3.2 hours on
mobile and 5.2 hours on desktop daily.
 Highest digital population in the world
 47M active Facebook accounts
 Fastest growing app market in Southeast Asia
Ethical Dilemmas (Faced by these Technological
Advancement)
 Laziness consume Alienate
 Your phone is trying to control you
Are these technologies ethical? If not, who is to be
blamed for its dangers?
 Let’s Discuss: Nosedive
 Examining Robotics & Humanity
 Ask Yourself: would you let a robot take care
of your dying mother?
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR)
defines robots as the following:
Robot
 Actuated mechanism programmable in two
or more axes with a degree of autonomy,
moving within its environment, to perform
intended tasks.
Service Robot
 Performs useful tasks for humans or
equipment excluding industrial automation
application
Personal Service Robot
 Used for noncommercial task, usually by
laypersons (i.e. domestic servant robot,
automated wheelchair, pet exercising robot)
Professional Service Robot
 Used for a commercial task, usually operated
by a trained operator (i.e. cleaning robot,
delivery robot, fire-fighting robot, surgery
robot, war machines)
Desire (Deutsche Servicerobotik Initiative
 One of the first service robots developed by
Germany launched on October 1, 2005
Unimate
 One of the earliest robots created in the early
1950s by George Devol. It comes from the
word “Universal Automation” since it
performed dangerous welding in heated
machines.
Ethical Dilemmans
 Safety and Sentience
Science, Technology and Society l Page 10 of 11
  What if someone’s life is compromised by a
robot?
 What id robots develop emotions? What if
they start to think for themselves?
 Should they be granted rights when they
develop the ability to feel?

Are robots capable of having feelings?

 Recall BLACK MIRROR’S “Be Right Back”

Technology is inevitable.
Problems faced calls for ethics.

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