The Human

Flourishing in terms
of Science and
Technology
Technology as a
Way of Revealing
Christopher S. Pasculado Jr.
Discussant
Science, Technology, and Society
 Martin Heidegger (1889-
1976)
Martin Heidegger is widely acknowledge as one
of the most important philosopher of 20th
century. He was a German Philosopher who was
part of the continental tradition of philosophy.
He stern opposition to positivism and
technological support from leading post
modernist and post-structuralist of the time.
Heidegger’s work on philosophy focused on
ontology or the study of ‘being’ or dasein in
German.
 The Essence of Technology
1. INSTRUMENTAL DEFINITION
Technology is a means to an end.
2. ANTHROPOLOGICAL DEFINITION
Technology is a human activity.

Both definitions are correct. However, neither touches on the true

essence of technology.
 Heidegger’s View on Technology
Technology as a Way of Revealing

• Heidegger stressed that the truth can only be pursued through the
correct ways. Simply what is correct leads to what is true.

• In this sense, he envisioned technology as a Way of Revealing

- a mode of bringing forth.
 Heidegger’s View on Technology
Technology as a Way of Revealing

• Bringing forth can be understood through the Ancient Greek philosopher

concept, Poiesis, which refers to the act of bringing something out of
concealment.

• By bringing something out of concealment, the truth of that something is

revealed.
 Heidegger’s View on Technology
Technology as a Way of Revealing

• The truth is understood through another Ancient Greek concept of

Aletheia, which is translated as unclosedness, unconcealedness,
disclosure, or truth.

Technology is a form of poiesis – a Way of Revealing that unconceals

aletheia or the truth.
 Heidegger’s View on Technology
Technology as a Way of Revealing

• In Philosophy, techne resembles the term episteme that refer to the

human ability to make and perform. Techne also encompasses
knowledge and understanding.

• In Art, it refers to tangible and intangible aspects of life.

• The Greek understood techne in the way that it encompasses not only
craft, but other acts of the mind, and poetry.
Technology as mode
of revealing
Technology as mode of revealing
“Technology is a way of revealing. If we
give heed to this, then another whole
realm for the essence of technology will
open itself up to us. It is the realm of
revealing, i.e., of truth.”
• Social media has fundamentally reshaped our society. Yet, critiques
regarding the intersection of technology and social media have become
so ubiquitous that it’s natural for us to neglect them.

• It is our reliance on technology to appear in the world that’s troubling.

We are living through our phones rather than living in the present. Our
desire to document our lives ultimately prevents us from living our
lives. And worst of all, the more reliant we become on technology the
less we question it. We forsake our privacy, recast our identity, slip into
consumerism, and become unequivocally dependent.

• Revealing is the way something comes into Being. The way that a thing
unfolds itself at its own time and place. The Heideggerian concept of
revealing is powerful.
Heidegger says that technology
is a mode of revealing:
“Technology comes to presence in
the realm where revealing and
unconcealment take place, where
alē theia, truth, happens.”

Thus, technology reveals the Truth of

the world, and revealing is
something that gives or shows itself.
Technology as Poiesis :
Applicable to Modern
Technology
Technology as Poiesis: Does Modern Technology
Bring Forth or Challenge Forth?
• Heidegger, in The Question Concerning Technology, postulated that both primitive
crafts and modern technology are revealing. However, he explained that modern
technology is revealing not in the sense of Bringing Forth

• Revealing of modern technology is not a Bringing-Forth, but a Challenging Forth.

• Modern technology challenges nature by extracting something from it and

transforming, storing, and distributing it. It makes people think how to do things
faster, more effectively, and with less effort.
Technology as Poiesis: Does Modern Technology
Bring Forth or Challenge Forth?
• Challenging Forth reduces objects as standing –reserve or something to be disposed
of by those who can enframe them – humans.

• This is evident in the way people exploit natural resources with every little concern
for the ecological consequences that come with it.

• In the Information age – greater control of information to profit from its value gives
rise to concerns about privacy and protection of human rights.
 Technology as Poiesis: Does Modern Technology
Bring Forth or Challenge Forth?
Example of challenge forth:

• Rise and depletion of petroleum as a strategic resource.

• Introduction and use of synthetic dyes, artificial flavorings, and toxic materials into
the consumer stream that bring about adverse affects on human health.

• Used to write in agents in agriculture the poses threats to food safety and health
security.
Questioning as the
piety of though
For questioning is the piety
of thought.” Heidegger's “

The Question Concerning

Technology” can thus aptly
be described as a
comprehensive attempt to
Click icon to add picture
interrogate the idea of
technology in order to gain
an understanding of the
essence of the thing, rather
than merely understanding
it as an instrument or a mean
Heidegger concluded his treatise on technology by saying:

The closer we come to the danger, the more brightly do the way into the
saving power begin to shine and more questioning we become. For
questioning is the pity of thought

• Questioning is the piety of thought. It is only through questioning that

human are to reassess their position not only in the midst of technology
around them, but also in the grand scheme of things.

• Through questioning human bear to witness the crises that a complete

preoccupation with technology bring.
Enframing: Way of Revealing
Modern Technology
• Heidegger distinguished the way of revealing of modern technology by considering
it as a process of enframing.
• Enframing, according to Heidegger, is a kin to two ways:

1. CALCULATIVE THINKING
Humans desire to put an order to nature to better understand and
control it.
2. MEDITATIVE THINKING
Humans allowed nature to reveal itself to them without the use of force
or violence.
1. CALCULATIVE THINKING
Humans desire to put an order to nature to better
understand and control it.
• Tends to be more commonly utilized, primarily because humans’ desire to control
due to their fear of irregularity.
• Calculate thinking is the more technical kind of human though, in which
people gather information and put it together in order to put it to some specific
use.
• Enframing, is a way of ordering (or framing) nature to better
manipulate it. Enframing happens because of how humans desire for
security, even it pulls all of nature as a standard reserve and an
instrument of technology, to be exploited in the ordering of nature.

• The role of humans take as instruments of technology through

enframing is called destining.
• In destining, humans are challenged forth by
enframing to reveal what is real. However, this
destining of humans to reveal need your carries
with it the danger of misconstruction or
misinterpretation.
Human person Swallowed by
Technology
 The Dangers of Technology
• Lie on how humans let themselves be consumed by it. The responsibility of
humans is to recognize how do you become instruments of technology.

• According to Paulo Coelho, it is boastful for humans to think that nature needs
to be saved, whereas Mother Nature would remain even if human cease to
exist.

• As a mere tent on Earth, people must not allow themselves to be consumed by

technology lest they lose the essence of who they are as human beings. In this
sense, humans are in danger of becoming merely a part of the standing reserve
or, alternatively, we find themselves in nature.
WHAT IS HUMAN PERSON SWALLOWED BY TECHNOLOGY?

• A human person swallowed by technology can also be considered as someone

who is addicted with the use of technology. A person who loves technology can
either be called a technophile or a techie.

• Although technology is making life easier and helping human desires to become
reality, in the long run, it is said that it will change the course of humanity, most
likely in a negative way. Thus, technology is influencing as it is modifying human
qualities.
• If we allow ourselves to get swallowed by modern technology, we lose
essence of who we are beings in this world.

• If we cannot let go of the conveniences and profits brought about by

processes and industries that pollute the environment and cause climate
change, then technology has consumed our humanity.

• Problems brought about by human’s dependence on technology cannot

be simply resolved by refusing technology altogether.
EXAMPLES OF A HUMAN PERSON SWALLOWED BY TECHNOLOGY

Online Gamers Social Media addicts Online Gamblers

 EFFECTS OF HUMAN PERSON SWALLOWED BY
TECHNOLOGY

Technology is a constant
source of distractions

Technology affects Technology promotes a

sleeping habits more sedentary lifestyle

Cyberbullying
HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY AFFECT YOUR
HEALTH?

Emotional problem Brain damage

Digital eye strain Musculoskeletal problem Sleep problem

Art as way of EnFraming
Heidegger proposes art as a way out of this Enframing. With art, we
are better able to see the poetic in nature in reality. It leads us
away from calculative thinking and towards meditative thinking.
Through meditative thinking, we will recognize that nature is art
par excellence. Hence, nature is the most poetic.

Example: the watermill is a primitive structure compared to the

hydropower plant; or the first iPhone model is just an obsolete
piece of machine. People no longer realize how the watermill is
more in tune with the rhythms of nature or how much genius
went into the building of the first iPhone.
 When meditatively looking at technology, one will
begin to question its significance in his/her life more
than in its instrumental use.

 Itis meditative thinking that provides a way for us to

remain rooted in the essence of who we are. It grounds
us so as not to let our technological devices affect our
real core and warp our nature.
 Though Enframing happens, it cannot completely snuff
out the poetic character of technology. We ponder technology
and question it. In so doing, we also 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, as the

poet Holderlin put it, poetically man dwells upon this Earth.
Aristotle's conception of the four causes was mechanical. As explained by
Heidegger:

For centuries philosophy has taught that there are four causes:

(1) the causa materialis, the material, the matter out of which, for example, a silver
chalice is made
(2) the cousa formalis, the form, the shape into which the material enters;
(3) the causa finalis, the end, for example, the sacrificial rite in relation to which the
chalice
required is determined as to its form and matter
(4) the causa efficiens, which brings about the effect that is the finished, actual chalice,
in this instance, the silversmith. What technology is, when represented as a mea ns,
discloses itself when we trace instrumentality back to fourfold causality (1977, p. 2).
 Art as the Saving Power
• Necessary reflection upon the confrontation with technology are
required in order to proactively address the dangers of technology.

• “But where danger is, grows the saving power also”

-Friedrich Holderlin (1977, p.14)

• Heidegger proposed Art as the Saving Power and the way out
enframing: “and Art simply called techne. It was a single,
manifold revealing” (1977, p.18)
 Art as the Saving Power

• Art encourages humans to think less from

calculative standpoint where nature is viewed as
an ordered system. Instead, it inspires meditative
thinking where nature is seen as art and that
without any force and violence.
Human Flourish as Reflected
in Progress and Development
Human Flourish as Reflected in Progress and
Development

Forget ‘developing’ poor countries, its time

to ’de-develop’ rich countries.
What does this mean for our theory of
development?

 Economist Peter Edward argues that instead of pushing

poorer countries to ”catch up” with rich ones, we
should be thinking of ways to get rich “catch down” to
more appropriate level of development.
 Head of state gathered in New York to sign the UN’s new sustainable
development goals(SDGs). The main objective is eradicate poverty. Its set to be a
monumental international celebration.
Given all the fanfare, one might think the SDGs are about to offer a fresh plan
for how to save the world, but beneath all type, it’s business as usual.
The main strategy for eradicating poverty is the same: GROWTH
 GROWTH has been the main objective of development for the past 70
years, despite the fact that its not working.
 Since 1980, the global economy has grown but the number of people
living in poverty has increased.
 This approach is inadequate. Why? Because even at current levels of
average global consumption, we’re overshooting our planet’s bio-
capacity by more than 50% each year.
 In other words, growth isn’t an option anymore we’ve already grown too
much.
 Scientist are now telling us that we are blowing past planetary
boundaries at lightning speed, and the hard truth is that this global
crisis is due almost entirely to overconsumption in rich countries.
 Right now our planet only has enough resources for each of us to
consume.
 70% of people in middle and high income countries believe
overconsumption is putting our planet and society at risk.
 A similar majority also believe we should strive to buy and own less,
and that doing so would not compromise our happiness.
 We need to reorient ourselves toward a positive future, a truer form of
progress. One that is geared toward quantity instead of quantity. One
that is more sophisticated that just accumulating ever increasing
amount of stuff, which doesn’t make anyone happier.
 Robert and Edward skidelsky takes us down this road in his book
“HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH” where they lay out the possibility of
interventions such as banning advertising, a shorter working week and
a basic income, all which would improve our lives while reducing
consumption
 Either we slow down voluntarily or climate change will do it for us. We
can’t go on ignoring the laws of nature
REFERENCES:
https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/philosophy-of-technology/0/steps/26314#:~:text=By%20e
ntering%20into%20a%20particular,humans%20take%20power%20over%20reality
.

https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/de-la-salle-university-dasmarinas/science-technology-societ
y/technology-as-way-of-revealing-assessment/20555540

Thank You!