Chapter 4 : Human Fluorishing

in Science, Technology and

Society
• Questions Concerning Technology
The title of the seminal work written
by Martin Heidegger in which he
discussed the essence of technology. It is
in this seminal work where he referred to
technology as a mode of revealing. He
believes that it is the way of
understanding the world.
WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?
Technology is a
means to an end.
Technology is a
human activity
Technology itself is
contrivance, an
instrumentum
technol
 Heidegger
Envision technology as a mode o
It shows so much more about the
human person and the world
a way of bringing forth
truth is uncovered.
Heidegger also put forward
the ancient Greek
• Aletheia – unhiddenness
Concepts
• Poiesis – bringing forth
• techne – skill, art, or craft
Technology is a poiesis
that discloses or reveals the
truth.
Technology as Poiesis
Applicable to Modern
Technology?
Modern technology
challenges nature and
demands of its resources
for human consumption
and storage

It brings about a “setting

upon” of the land.
“What kind of unconcealment is it, that is
peculiar to that which results from this
setting upon that challenges?”
“Everywhere everything is ordered to
stand by, to be immediately on hand,
indeed to stand there just so that it may
be on call for a further ordering.”
(Heidegger, 1977)
For Heidegger, piety
means obedience and
submission
Sometimes, thinking
brings forth insights
that the mind has not
fully understood…
 This enframing that
challenges forth
Enframin and sets upon
nature is a way of
g: Way of looking at reality.
revealing Poiesis is concealed
in enframing as
in nature is viewed as
Modern an orderable and
calculable system
Technolo of information
In looking at the world, Heideger
distinguishes between
Calculative thinking – one orders and
puts a system to nature so it can be
understood better and controlled
Meditative thinking – one lets nature
reveals itself
 Heidegger
further
asserted that
“essence
theof technology is nothing
technological”. The essence of
technology is not found in the
instrumentality and function of
machines constructed, but in the
significance such technology
unfolds.
 ART AS A
WAY OUT OF
ENFRAMING
…once there was time
when the bringing-forth of
the true into the beautiful
was called techne. The
poiesis of fine arts was
also called techne.
Aristotle’s ses
u c a
1. 4
the causa materialis
2. the causa formalis
3. the causa finalis
4. The causa efficiens
“We ponder
technology and
question it. We also
become aware of the
crisis we have plunged
the Earth into”.
Questions for Reflection
1. How is technology a mode of
revealing?
2. In your daily experience of
technology, what else Is revealed
to you aside from its function?
3. Why should technology be
questioned?
4. How is questioning the piety of
thought?
5. How does art provide a way
out of enframing?
 Critical analysis writing means
evaluation of author’s work where
it can be a news article analysis, a
research journal article, a book,
transcript of a conference or even
a movie.

•.
•Persuade the reader: look to find
if the author has presented logical
reasoning and counter-arguments,
opposite opinions to persuade
someone about particular opinion.
The following are the things that you
need to do:
•Inform the reader: look if the
article has a clear structure and
whether it provides sufficient
evidence supported by facts and
additional research.
CHAPTER 5 :
HUMAN
FLOURISHING AS
REFLECTED IN
PROGRESS
AND
DEVELOPMENT
WHAT IS
HUMAN
FLOURISHING?
The term human flourishing came from the
Greek word “EUDAIMONIA” used by Aristotle

Doing and Living well. Being

happy or be of good spirit.

It is an effort to achieve self-

actualization and fulfillment
within a larger community of
individuals each with his or her
own effort.
HOW DO WE
KNOW WE ARE
PROGRESSING?
W H AT A R E T H E
I N D I C ATO R S O F
DEVELOPMENT?
W H AT A R E T H E
I N D I C AT O R S O F
D E V E L O P M E N T ?

Poverty Level per Capita GDP

Higher Incomes and Life

Expectancy

The Human Development Index

F O R G E T
D E V E L O P I N G
P O O R
C O U N T R I E S ,
I T ’ S T I M E T O
D E - D E V E L O P
R I C H C o u n t r i e s

B y : J a s o n H i c k e l
 Sustainable Development
W H AT Goals

IS The main objective is to

eradicate poverty by 2030.

SDG? The main strategy for

eradication is the same: Growth
Growth isn’t an option any more – we’ve
already grown too much. Scientists are
now telling us that we’re
blowing past planetary boundaries at
breakneck 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 1.8 “
global hectares” annually – a standardised
unit that measures resource use and waste
How Will it affect our theory of development?

According to economist Peter We should look at societies

Edward that instead of pushing where people live long and
poor countries to “catch up” happy lives at relatively low
with the rich ones, we should levels of income and
be thinking of ways to get rich consumption not as basket cases
countries to “catch down” to that need to be developed
more appropriate levels and towards western models, but as
development. explars of efficient living.
How much do we really need to
live a happy lives?

some of the excess income and

In the US, life expectancy is 79 consumption we see in the rich world
years and GDP per capita is yields improvements in quality of life
that are not captured by life
$53,000. But many countries have expectancy, or even literacy rates. But
achieved similar life expectancy even if we look at measures of overall
with a mere fraction of this happiness and wellbeing in addition to
income life expectancy, a number of low- and
middle-income countries rank highly
 The problem is that the pundits
promoting this kind of transition are
70% of people in middle- and high- using the wrong language. They use
income countries believe terms such as de-growth, zero
overconsumption is putting our growth or – worst of all – de-
planet and society at risk development, which are technically
accurate but off-putting for anyone
who’s not already on board.
 Remember

PROGRESS is not only and ecological This is not giving anything up. And
imperative. It is also a development it’s certainly not about living as life
one. If we do not act soon, all our of voluntary misery or imposing
hard-won against poverty will harsh limits on human potential. On
evaporate, as food systems collapse the Country, it’s about reaching a
and the mass femine re-emerges to high level of understanding and
an extent not seen since 19th consciousness about what we’re
century. doing here and why.
Chapter 6 : The Good
Life
Aristotle, an important ancient Greek philosopher,
attempted to explain what the good is. In
Nicomachean ethics, Aristotle stated: all human
activities aim at some good.

“Every art and human inquiry, and similarly every

action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good
and for this reason the good has been rightly
declared as that which all things
aim”(Nicomachean ethics 2:2)
Furthermore, according to Aristotle,
happiness is the end of human “It is the activities that express
action. Happiness defines a good virtue that control
life. This happiness, however, is not happiness,and the contrary
the kind that comes from sensate activities that control its
pleasures, it is that which comes contrary”(Nicomachean ethics
from living a life of virtue, a life of 1:10)
excellence, manifested from the
personal to the global scale.
“Virtue, then, being of two kinds,
intellectual and moral, intellectual virtue in
the main owes its birth and growth to
teaching(for which reason it requires
experience and time), while moral virtue
comes about as a result of habit”
(Nicomachean ethics 2:1).
 The onward progress of Science and
technology is also the movement towards the
good life. Science and technology is one of the
highest expressions of human faculties. They
allow us to thrive and fluorish in life if we so
desire it.

 Science and technology may also corrupt a

person, but grounding oneself in virtue will
help him/her steer clear of danger.
 Chapter 7 :
When Humanity and
Technology Cross
 The good life entails living in a just and progressive
society whose citizens have the freedom to fluorish.

 The United General Assembly proclaimed the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) on December
10,1948 as the global standard of fundamental human
rights for universal recognition and protection. The
UDHR begins, “whereas recognition of the inherent
dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all the
members of the human family is the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace in the world”(UDHR
Preamble). as implied, everyone has absolute moral worth
by virtue of being human being. Human dignity is an
ultimate core value of our existence.
The good life, nevertheless, as a life of justice, demand not just equal
treatment of human beings but also preferential treatment to those
who have less or disadvantaged. The first seven articles of the UDHR
encapsulate the spirit of this so called “milestone document in the
history of human rights”. they are as follows

Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one
another in a spirit of brotherhood.
 Article Article Article

Article 2 Article 3 Article 4

• Everyone is entitled to all • Everyone has the • No one shall bee

the rights and freedoms
set forth in this right to life, held in slavery or
declaration, without liberty and servitude;slavery
distinction of any kind, security of a and the slave trade
such as race, color, sex,
language,religion,political human person. shall be prohibited
or other opinion, national in all their forms.
or social origin,
property,birth or other
status. Furthermore, no
distinction shall be made
on the basis of the
political, jurisdictional or
international status of the
country or territory to
which a person belongs,
whether it be independent,
trust, non-self-governing
or under any other
limitation
 Article Article Article

Article 5 Article 6 Article 7

• No one shall be • Everyone has the • All are equal

subjected to right to before the law and
torture or to cruel,, recognition are entitled
inhuman or everywhere as a without any
degrading person before the discrimination to
treatment or law. equal protection of
punishment the law. All are
entitled to equal
protection against
any discrimination
in violation of this
declaration and
against any
incitement to such
discrimination.
Humans vs. Robots
 Robots, usually designed like human beings, are created
to perform complex, repetitive or dangerous tasks. With
the development of the Artificial Intelligence(AI), robots
may also eventually act and decide like humans.

 Unemployment is one of the many ethical considerations

in the widespread use of AI.

 It is also interesting to note that as machines and robots

approach having a human like nature, humans may also
have the tendency to become machine-like.