The essence of technology is by no

means anything technological

- Martin Heidegger

Science and Technology are at the forefront

of our society today. Much that we do deals with

research, progress, and development in the

ever-growing technological sectors. Technology

changes us and the world around us in countless

ways. It makes work easier, cures various

diseases, provides abundant food supply and

potable water, enables communication and travel

across the globe, and expands our knowledge

of the natural environment. It has brought us

longer and healthier lives, freedom from physical

and mental drudgery, and many new creative

possibilities.

But technology has always been a double-

edge sword, empowering both our creative

and our destructive natures. Technological

advancement is not without complication, and

even ardent proponents of technology recognize

that our present age of innovation is fraught

with concern for unintended consequences. For

instance, technology that eases our labor can

detach us from a meaningful sense of work.

What can cure disease can encourage us to view

the human body as something to be engineered,

modified, and immortalized. Techniques that

produce more food from less land can have

numerous, long-term effects in the natural

environment. Likewise, even as technology

makes possible instant communication with

others around the world, it often creates distance

between ourselves and people near to us;

while it enables unprecedented mobility, it can

undermine the stability necessary for families

and communities to thrive. As technology

provides ever-increasing knowledge, we quite

reasonably wonder whether such knowledge is

being used to bring out a wiser, more just world.

How should we understand and evaluate

both the promise and peril of the things we

create? What implications arise from our

understanding of what it means to be human

and live well? Definitely, the basic principles

of ethics and morality should not change as a

result of new technologies. It is important to fully

understand the basics of human interaction to

make accurate judgments on human flourishing.

Human flourishing is defined as an 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. It encompasses the uniqueness, dignity,

diversity, freedom, happiness, and holistic well-

being of the individual within the larger family,

community, and population. Achieving human

flourishing is a life-long existential journey of

hopes, achievements, regrets, losses, illnesses,

sufferings, and coping.

Catholicism and Islam are home to long!

traditions of philosophieal, theological, and

legal reflection on the nature and dignity of

the human person and the value of scientific

knowledge. The idea that men and women

are of divine origin and, therefore, possess an

inviolable dignity is a starting point for both

traditions. The human person and the human

body are divine gifts deserving of unconditional

respect. In both the Catholic and Muslim world

views, God endowed human beings with reason

as a means to communicate with one another, to

strive after truth, and to care for His creation.

Science and technology are recognized as

positive in principle but can also like human

enterprises, serve evil ends.

Karl Marx, a revolutionary socialist, posits

that in our daily lives we take decisions that have

unintended consequences, which then combine to

create large-scale social forces that may have an

utterly unpredicted effect. He states that humans

are naturally social beings, and therefore, society

is the essential unity of man in nature." The

decisions we make as a society should take into

account the nature of our social relations and the

potential consequences.

Marx argues that to achieve true human

flourishing, we as individuals must first overcome

the different mechanisms of alienation to express

our full humanity in relation both to nature

and one another, and he frames this argument

within the subtext of alienated labor. He defines

alienation as the estrangement of humans from

aspects of human nature. This human nature

consists of the particular set of vital drives and

tendencies that man expresses, and, therefore,

alienation can be said to be a state in which

these human drives and tendencies are stunted

to some degree. As the worker produces more, he

becomes more alien to the object of his labor, his

product. This objectification of labor establishes

what Marx calls "the loss of and subservience to

the object, and the appropriation as alienation."

What does this mean in the greater scheme of

things? Let us consider the example of a modern

factory worker. The factory worker comes to work

daily and begins his line of work, which is usually

a specific task with the larger framework of the

factory. Let us assume he works at an automobile

factory. The product of his labor is the automobile,

a product that this worker will most likely pass

on through the system without considering it

beyond the scope of his work. The factory worker

does not associate with this product once it

has been passed, though the factory benefits

from the production of this item. As a matter

of fact, the factory will benefit more as the

worker produces more product while the worker

thinks less and less of the actual product of his

labor. The labor becomes a means of procuring

some means of survival within the system, and

the worker is detached from the product of

his work altogether. Despite the mechanistic

character of this image, the factory worker motif

is applicable to our modern consideration of

genetic intervention. In considering this Marxian

system of alienation described above, genetic

intervention brings one more consumer product

into this world, the human individual himself.

Genetic intervention simply presents itself as

potentially developing into another consumer

choice, further establishing the mechanism of

alienation from product, the product being the

individual. In a world where human individuals

could possibly be altered or modified in the

hopes of establishing some sort of enhancement,

the individual himself becomes the object or

product of labor. In principle, man is alienated

from this product and cannot use this product

as a tool of self-expression. Therefore, the idea

of genetically intervening in the production

of human individuals not only objectifies the

human person but also distorts the individual

as a mirror of himself (Thomas, 2011).

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) is the fountainhead

behind every achievement of science technology,

political theory, and aesthetics, especially

romantic art in today's world, His philosophy

has underpinned the achievements of the

Renaissance and of all scientific advances and

technological progress to this very day. Aristotle

teaches that each man's life has a purpose, and

that the function of one's life is to attain that

purpose. He explains that the purpose of life

is earthly happiness or flourishing that can be

achieved via reason and the acquisition of virtue.

Articulating an explicit and clear understanding

of the end toward which a person's life aims,

Aristotle states that each human being should

use his abilities to their fullest potential

and should obtain happiness and enjoyment

through the exercise of their realized capacities.

He contends that human achievements are

animated by purpose and autonomy and that

people should take pride in being excellent at

what they do. According to Aristotle, human

beings have a natural desire and capacity to

know and understand the truth, to pursue moral

excellence, and to instantiate their ideals in the

world through action.

Technology as a way of Revealing

Technology is therefore no mere means. It is a way of

revealing. If we heed to this, then another whole

realm for the essence of technology will open itself

up to us. It is the realm of revealing, that is the

truth. - Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher,

wrote an essay, "The Question Concerning

Technology," which addresses modern technology

and its essence as an instrumental way of

revealing the world. Technology is slipping out

of control and its nature as an instrument causes

frustration and excites the will to remaster it.

which is a large factor in the growing discomfort

with modern technology. He goes beyond the

traditional view of technology as machines and

technical procedures. Moreover, he tries to think

through the essence of technology as a way in

which we encounter entities generally, including

nature, ourselves, and, indeed, everything. That

is to say, we conceive modern technology as

means to achieve ends. As being instrumental,

the essence of technology concerns causality.

A deeper look into causality reveals that the

end is the beginning: a cause is that to which

something is indebted, and the purpose for which

an instrument is designed is the primary cause

of its coming into being.

Heidegger's understanding of technology

was based on its essence. First, the essence of

technology is not something we make; it is a

mode of being or of revealing. This means that

technological things have their own novel kind

of presence, endurance, and connections among

parts and wholes. They have their own way of

presenting themselves and the world in which

they operate. The essence of technology is, for

Heidegger, not the best or most characteristic

instance of technology, nor is it a nebulous

generality, a form or idea. Rather, to consider

technology essentially is to see it as an event to

which we belong: the structuring, ordering, and

"requisitioning" of everything around us, and of

ourselves. The second point is that technology

even holds sway over beings that we do not

normally think of as technological, such as gods!

and history. Third, the essence of technology

as Heidegger discusses it is primarily a matter

of modern and industrial technology. He is

less concerned with the ancient and old tools

and techniques that antedate modernity; the

essence of technology is revealed in factories

and industrial processes, not in hammers and

plows. And fourth, for Heidegger, technology is

not simply the practical application of natural

science. Instead, modern natural science can

understand nature in the characteristically

scientific manner only because nature has

already, in advance, come to light as a set of

calculable, orderable forces that is to say,

technologically.

According to him there are two characteristics

of modern technology as a revealing process,

First, the mode of revealing modern technology

is challenging. Things are revealed or brought

forth by challenging or demanding them. It is

putting to nature the unreasonable demand

that it supply energy that can be extracted

and stored. The mining technology today is a

good example for this mode of revealing things.

Tracks of land reveal as something challenged

because man sees them as objects where coal and

ore can be demanded. Man sees them as source

of energy. These energies can be stored so that

man can summon them at his bidding. Shortly,

nature reveals itself in modern technology as

things of manipulation, as things that yield

energy whenever man demands them to do so.

"Challenging" as a mode of revealing nature

could be sharply contrasted to "Physis, which is

the arising of something from itself, a bringing-

forth or poieses. A flower blossoming or fading in

the changes of the season is an example of this

form of revealing. The revelation has its own

autonomy, and at best, man can only witness.

This is a natural way of revealing.

The mode of revealing in modern technology

has brought about new world ordering. This

kind of ordering is best described as "artificial"

in contrast to natural ordering." It sees nature

as an object of manipulation and not anymore

as an autonomous reality demanding respect

and admiration. The network of things is now

reduced into the network of manipulation. The

second characteristic of modern technology as a

revealing process is that of challenging, which

brings forth the energy of nature as expediting.

In the modern use of the word, expediting

means to hasten the movement of something.

However, in its original sense, expediting is also

a process of revealing inasmuch as it "unlocks"

and "exposes" something. But what is exposed is

still directed toward something else, i.e., toward

the maximum yield at the minimum expense. In

short, things that are revealed in an expedited

manner are brought forth as resources that must

be used efficiently. In mining, for example, man

digs coal not simply to know what coals are. Yes,

man "exposes" these coals but not simply to know

them. They uncover them because he wants to

use them. Coals are mined from truckloads of

land to use their energy. This is the characteristic

of the things revealed in modern technology. They

are there "for something.

Heidegger uses a technical word to name the

things that are revealed in modern technology

as "standing in reserve." Things as standing in

Teserve are not "objects." Objects, on the other

hand, are things that "stand against us" as

things with autonomy. They are revealed mainly

in human thinking and do not allow further

manipulations. Things as standing in reserve,

on the other hand, are called to come forth in

challenging and expediting. They are reduced

into the objectlessness of modern technology.

Nothing anymore "stands against us" as objects

of autonomy and wonder. Everything is regressed

into an interlocking of things that yield what

man wants whenever he demands them to do

so. Even nature is now revealed as standing in

reserve and not anymore objects of autonomy.

Unlike the modern technologies, the old

technology still respects nature as an object of

autonomy. The modern and the old technologies

are of different modes of revealing, the former,

artificial and the latter, natural. Take for

example, the contrast between how the modern

technology of the hydropower plant and the old

technology of a wooden bridge reveal the presence

of a river. The hydropower plant reveals the river

that supplies it energy simply as another thing

standing in reserve. It is a source of energy

that completes the interlocking of things in the

system of hydropower generation. The river is

not anymore seen as an object with autonomy

but an object on call to be used.Conversely, the

technology of building a wooden bridge reveals

the river not as a key link in completing the

bridge; rather it respects it as a part of nature,

a "landscape," using Heidegger's own term, that

is somewhat permanent and stand against us

as another entity. We move "around" it so to say,

and we only see what we can do to overcome its

dominating presence; in other words, we do not

manipulate it, but rather, we act according to

its rules.

For Heidegger en-framing is the "essence"

of modern technology. En-framing simply means

putting into the frame of modern technology

everything in nature. This "frame" of modern

technology is the network or interlocking things

standing in reserve. It is the world centered on

man's caprices and demands. It is a world of

manipulation and demystification. Here nothing

is mysterious anymore. This is what Heidegger

was afraid of, that the process of truth will revert

to the realm of erring. It must be remembered

that for truth to be, it must retain its sense of

mystery. Truth is for the most part untruth.

To disregard this essentially limited process of

revelation is also to disregard the entirety of its

essence. We cannot have absolute knowledge of

reality, more so, we cannot have full dominion

over it. As they say, we are only "guardians of

creation. To disregard this nature of reality is

also putting ourselves into the brink of danger

(Blitz, 2014).

Because of man's arrogance, nature is on the

verge of destruction. He thinks he knows how

nature works and tends to hasten or "expedite"

its processes. He demands too much from it and

in turn disrupts its natural flow. Nature is beyond

our control. Its truth is beyond our grips. For

all we know, it is the one that controls us. If we

ever try to dominate it, nature will surely revolt

against us in a very humbling manner.

Human Flourishing

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the

light of creative altruism or in the darkness of

destructive selfishness - Martin Luther, Jr

Human flourishing is said to be the best

translation for the Greek word Eudaimonia,

which for both Plato and Aristotle, means not

only good fortune and material prosperity

but a situation achieved through virtue,

knowledge, and excellence. Learning to be

human is central to Confucian humanism and

its "creative transformation of the self through

an "ever-expanding network of relationships

encompassing the family, community, nation,

world, and beyond. It is, thus, inseparable from

self-awareness and self-cultivation, and this

"self," far from being an isolated individual,

is experientially and practically a center of

relationships.

The affirmation that human flourishing

implies development of the individual in his

intellectual, affective, moral, and spiritual

dimensions obviously needs elaboration. Plato,

in the Republic, contends that the soul or mind

has three motivating parts: rational, spirited

or emotional, and appetitive. Each of these

has its own desired ends, and Eudaimonid or

human flourishing requires an ordering of this

tripartite structure of the soul: the rational and

spirited parts. Virtue ensues. In the same vein,

Aristotle, in the Nicomachean Ethics, states that

Eudaimonia is constituted not by honor or wealth

power but by rational activity in accordance

with excellence in the virtues of character,

including courage, honesty, pride, friendliness,

and wittiness, the intellectual virtues-notably

rationality and judgment, as well as mutually

beneficial friendships and scientific knowledge,

particularly of things that are fundamental and

unchanging (www.elliottdacher.org/center-for-

human-flourishing.html).

According to Aristotle, all humans seek to

flourish. It is the proper and desired end of all of

our actions. Flourishing, however, is a functional

definition. To understand something's function,

you have to understand its nature. In Aristotle's

schema, there are four aspects of human nature:-

physical, emotional, social, and rational. As physical

beings, we require nourishment, exercise, rest, and

all the other things that it takes to keep our bodies

functioning properly. As emotional beings, we have

wants, desires, urges, and reactions. We perceive

something in the world that we want, and we

have the power of volition to get it; likewise, we

have the power to avoid the things we do not want,

For humans, these wants can get pretty complex,

but at rock bottom we all have emotional needs

and wants that spring from rather basic sources.

As social beings, we must live and function in

particular societies. Our social nature stacks on

top of our emotional nature, such that we have

wants and needs that we would not have were

we not social creatures. As entional beings, we are

creative, expressive, knowledge-seeking and able

to obey reason. We may not always obey reason,

and we may sometimes not want to exercise our

minds, but a large part of our existence relates to

our being rational animals. An individual cannot

truly flourish if he is not flourishing in one of the

four aspects of human nature.

Human flourishing also known as personal

flourishing involves the rational use of one's

individual potentialities, including talents,

abilities, and virtues in the pursuit of his freely

and rationally chosen values and goaler An

action is considered to be proper if it leads to the

flourishing of the person performing the action.

Human flourishing is, at the same time, a moral

accomplishment and a fulfillment of human

capacities, and it is one through being the other.

Self-actualization is moral growth and viceversa.

Not an abstraction, human flourishing is

real and highly personal by nature; it consists

of the fulfillment of both man's human nature

and unique potentialities, and is concerned with

choices and actions that necessarily deal with

the particular and the contingent. One man's

self-realization is not the same as another's.

What is called for in terms of concrete actions,

such as choice of career, education, friends, home,

and others, varies from person to person. Human

flourishing becomes an actuality when one

uses his practical reason to consider his unique

needs, circumstances, and capabilities, and so

on, to determine which concrete instantiations

of human values and virtues will comprise his

well-being. The idea of human flourishing is

inclusive and can encompass a wide variety

of constitutive ends, such as knowledge, the

development of character traits, productive

work, religious pursuits, community building,

love, charitable activities, allegiance to persons

and causes, self-efficacy, material well-being,

pleasurable sensations, etc.

To flourish, a man must pursue goals that

are both rational for him as an individual and

as a human being. Whereas the former will vary

depending upon one's particular circumstances,

the latter are common to man's distinctive

nature - man has the unique capacity to live

rationally. The use of reason is a necessary, but

not a sufficient, condition for human flourishing.

Living rationally i.e., consciously ) means

dealing with the world conceptually. Living

consciously implies respect for the facts of reality.

The principle of living consciously is not affected

by the degree of one's intelligence nor the extent

of one's knowledge, rather, it is the acceptance

of use of one's reason in the recognition and

perception of reality and in his choice of values

and actions to the best of his ability, whatever

that ability may be. To pursue rational goals

through rational means is the only way to cope

successfully with reality and achieve one's goals.

Although rationality is not always rewarded,

the fact remains that it is through the use of

one's mind that a man not only discovers the

values required for personal flourishing, but

also he attains them. Values can be achieved in

reality if a man recognizes and adheres to the

reality of his unique personal endowments and

contingent circumstances. Human flourishing is

positively related to a rational man's attempts

to externalize his values and actualize his

internal views of how things ought to be in the outside world, Practical reason can be used to choose,
create, and integrate all the values and virtues that comprise personal flourishing.