MODULE IN GEd 109

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Abegail L. Gonzales
Erma D. Maalihan
Sherryl M. Montalbo
Table of Contents

TOPIC PAGE No.

PART I
General Concepts and STS Historical Developments

Chapter 1 – Historical Antecedents

A. Historical Antecedents in Which Social
Considerations Changed the Course of Science and Technology
What is Science, Technology and Society 1 Historical Antecedents in the
World 5 From Ancient Times to 600 BC 5 The Advent of Science 6 Islamic
Golden Age 6 Ancient China 7 The Renaissance 8 The Enlightenment
Period 9 Industrial Revolution 10
20th Century Science 11 Fourth Industrial Revolution 12 Activities 14

B. Historical Development of Science and Technology

in the Philippines
Pre-Spanish Era 18 Spanish Colonial Era 19 American Period 20
Commonwealth Period 21 S&T Since Independence 21 S&T in the 60s to
90s 22 Hopes in Philippines S&T 25 Current Initiatives in Philippine S&T 26

C. Paradigm Shifts
What is a paradigm? 28 What is a paradigm shift? 29

Chapter 2 – Intellectual Revolutions that Defined Society

A. What is an Intellectual Revolution? 31 B. The Birth of Modern Science 31 C.
Copernican Revolution 32 D. Darwinian Revolution 35 E. Freudian Revolution
36 F. Scientific Revolution in MesoAmerica 38
G. Asian Scientific Revolution 39 H. Scientific Revolution in Middle East 39 I.
Scientific Revolution in Africa 41 J. Information Revolution 43 K. Activity:
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants 45

Chapter 3 - Science and Technology, and Nation Building

A. The Philippine Government S&T Agenda 48 B. In Focus: Batangas State
University KIST Park 51 C. Major Development Programs in Science and
 Technology 52 D. Personalities in Science and Technology in the Philippines 54
E. Science Education in the Philippines 58

Part II
Science and Technology and the Human Condition

Chapter 4 - The Human Person Flourishing in terms of Science and Technology A.

Technology as a Way of Revealing 62 B. Human Flourishing 64

Chapter 5 – The Good Life

A. What is a Good Life? 69 B. What is Human Existence? 72 C. What is a Public
Good? 73

Chapter 6 - When Technology and Humanity Cross

A. The Ethical Dilemmas of Robotics 76 B. Human, Morals and Machines 79 C.
Why the Future Does Not Need Us? 81 D. Activity 86

Part III
Specific Issues in Science, Technology and Society

Chapter 7 - The Information Age

A. Pre-Gutenberg Period 89 B. Gutenberg Revolution 90 C. Printed Materials as
Agents of Change 91 D. Post-Gutenberg Period
E. Activity 94
Chapter 8 – Biodiversity and Healthy Society
A. Biodiversity and Healthy Society 96 B. Threats to Biodiversity 97 C. GMOs 99
D. Risk Related to the Use of GMOs 104
E. Activity 106

Chapter 9 – The Nano World

A. What is Nanotechnology 108 B. Environmental Aspects of Nanotechnology 111
C. Nanotechnology in the Philippines 112 D. Nanotechnology and Education 113
E. Activity 115

Chapter 10 – Gene Therapy

A. Approaches to Gene Therapy 117 B. Stem Cell Therapy 118 C. Activity 119

Chapter 11 - Climate Change, Energy Crisis and Environmental Awareness A. What

is Climate Change 121 B. Causes of Climate Change 121 C. Impacts of Climate
Change 122 D. Activity 125

Chapter 1
Historical Antecedents in Which Social Considerations Changed
 the Course of Science and Technology

Introduction
This section presents an overview of how science and technology evolved from
ancient times to the present. It shows how man was able to develop crude technological
tools and eventually improve them through time to make his way of living more
convenient and the society more progressive.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss the interactions between science and technology and society throughout
history
2. Discuss how scientific and technological developments affect society and the
environment
3. Identify the paradigm shifts in history

A. General Concepts

What is Science, Technology and Society?

Science and Technology and Society is an interdisciplinary course designed to

examine the ways that science and technology shape, and are shaped by, our society,
politics, and culture. It explores the conditions under which production, distribution and
utilization of scientific knowledge and technological systems occur; and the effects of
these processes upon the entire society. History and philosophy of science and
technology, sociology and anthropology are greatly interconnected to the discussion of
STS because these are the very factors that molded the development of science and
technology as we know it today.

Science is an evolving body of knowledge that is based on theoretical expositions

and experimental and empirical activities that generates universal truths. Technology, on
the other hand is the application of science and creation of systems, processes and
objects designed to help humans in their daily activities. The development of science
and technology has brought immense progress in society and men. Scientific
knowledge and technology influences individuals and society. Better understanding of
science and technology is essential to know the unique attributes of each enterprise,
then addressing
their implications for society.

Society is the sum total of our interactions as humans, including the interactions
that we engage in to understand the nature of things and to create things. It is also
defined as a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large
social group sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the
same political authority and dominant cultural expectations (Science Daily).

Science, technology and society is important to the public because it helps

address issues and problems that are of concern to the general population. Scientific
and technological principles have been and continue to be applied to solve problems
that people experience in their day-to-day aspects of living. But scientific findings must
be applied at the right scales. The impact of technological breakthroughs on people,
society and the environment must be critically assessed to preserve its value.

Figure 1 The Interrelationship of science, technology and society

Source: Ihueze et al., 2015. researchgate.net

A lot of our problems in modern society involve not only technology but also
human values, social organization, environmental concerns, economic resources,
political decisions, and a myriad of other factors. These things sits at the interface
between the three fields and can also be solved (if they can be solved at all) by the
application of scientific knowledge, technical expertise, social understanding, and
humane compassion.

In the past, science is learned as an independent study from other fields. It

focuses on the scientific methods, natural processes and understanding nature. But in
the current global scenario, science is studied holistically, often in an interdisciplinary
method, emphasizing systems rather than processes, synthesis more than analysis and
predicting nature’s behavior in order to have useful application in solving contemporary
problems.

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The scientific data that have built up a considerable base of knowledge led to a vast
portfolio of useful technologies, especially in the 21st century, to solve many of the
problems now facing humankind (UNESCO, 1999).

To solve our contemporary problems, science needs to become more

multidisciplinary and its practitioners should continue to promote cooperation and
integration between the social and natural sciences. A holistic approach also demands
that science draw on the contributions of the humanities (such as history and
philosophy), local knowledge systems, aboriginal wisdom, and the wide variety of
cultural values.

The influence of science and technology on people’s lives is expanding. While

recent benefits to humanity are unparalleled in the history of the human species, in some
instances the impact has been harmful or the long-term effects give causes for serious
concerns. A considerable measure of public mistrust of science and fear of technology
exists today. In part, this stems from the belief by some individuals and communities that
they will be the ones to suffer the indirect negative consequences of technical
innovations introduced to benefit only a privileged minority. The power of science to
bring about change places a duty on scientists to proceed with great caution both in
what they do and what they say. Scientists should reflect on the social consequences of
the technological applications or dissemination of partial information of their work and
explain to the public and policy makers alike the degree of scientific uncertainty or
incompleteness in their findings. At the same time, though, they should not hesitate to
fully exploit the predictive power of science, duly qualified, to help people cope with
environmental change, especially in cases of direct threats like natural disasters or
water shortages.

The Role of Science and Technology

1. alter the way people live, connect, communicate and transact, with profound
effects on economic development;
2. key drivers to development, because technological and scientific revolutions
underpin economic advances, improvements in health systems, education and
infrastructure;
3. The technological revolutions of the 21st century are emerging from entirely new
sectors, based on micro-processors, tele-communications, bio-technology and
nano-technology. Products are transforming business practices across the
economy, as well as the lives of all who have access to their effects. The most
remarkable breakthroughs will come from the interaction of insights and
applications arising when these technologies converge.
4. have the power to better the lives of poor people in developing countries 5.
differentiators between countries that are able to tackle poverty effectively by
growing and developing their economies, and those that are not.
6. engine of growth
7. interventions for cognitive enhancement, proton cancer therapy and genetic
engineering
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Reflective Question:
With the whole world suffering from CoViD-19 pandemic, discuss the interplay
between science, technology and society in mitigating this problem.

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B. Historical Antecedents in the World

Just like with any other discipline, the best way to truly understand where
we are in science today is to look back at what happened in the past. The history
of science can teach us many lessons about the way scientists think and
understand the world around us. A historical perspective will make us appreciate
more what science really is.

From Ancient Times to 600 BC

Science during ancient times involved practical arts like healing practices
and metal tradition. Some of the earliest records from history indicate that 3,000
years before Christ, the ancient Egyptians already had reasonably sophisticated
medical practices. Sometime around 2650 B.C., for example, a man named
Imhotep was renowned for his knowledge of medicine. Most historians agree that
the heart of Egyptian medicine was trial and error. Egyptian doctors would try one
remedy, and if it worked, they would continue to use it. If a remedy they tried
didn’t work, the patient might die, but at least the doctors learned that next time
they should try a different remedy. Despite the fact that such practices sound
primitive, the results were, sometimes, surprisingly effective.

The Egyptian medicine was considered advanced as compared with other

ancient nations because of one of the early inventions of Egyptian civilization –
the papyrus. The papyrus is an ancient form of paper, made from the papyrus
plant, a reed which grows in the marshy areas around the Nile river. As early as
3,000 years before Christ, Egyptians took thin slices of the stem of the papyrus
plant, laid them crosswise on top of each other, moistened them, and then
pressed and dried them. The result was a form of paper that was reasonably
easy to write on and store. The invention of this ancient form of paper
revolutionized the way information was transmitted from person to person and
generation to generation. Before papyrus, Egyptians, Sumerians, and other races
wrote on clay tablets or smooth rocks. This was a time-consuming process, and
the products were not easy to store or transport. When Egyptians began writing
on papyrus, all of that changed. Papyrus was easy to roll into scrolls. Thus,
Egyptian writings became easy to store and transport. As a result, the knowledge
of one scholar could be easily transferred to other scholars. As this accumulated
knowledge was passed down from generation to generation, Egyptian medicine
became the most respected form of medicine in the known world. Papyrus was
used as a writing material as early as 3,000 BC in ancient Egypt, and continued
to be used to some extent until around 1100 AD.

Although the Egyptians were renowned for their medicine and for papyrus,
other cultures had impressive inventions of their own. Around the time that
papyrus was first being used in Egypt, the Mesopotamians were making pottery
using the first known potter’s wheel. Not long after, horse-drawn chariots were
being used.

As early as 1,000 years before Christ, the Chinese were using compasses to aid
themselves in their travels. The ancient world, then, was filled with inventions
that, although they sound commonplace today, revolutionized life during those
times. These inventions are history’s first inklings of science.

The Advent of Science (600 BC to 500 AD)

The ancient Greeks were the early thinkers and as far as historians can
tell, they were the first true scientists. They collected facts and observations and
then used those observations to explain the natural world. Although many
cultures like the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Chinese had collected
observations and facts, they had not tried to use those facts to develop
explanations of the world around them.

Scientific thought in Classical Antiquity becomes tangible from the 6th

century BC in pre-Socratic philosophy (Thales, Pythagoras). In circa 385 BC,
Plato founded the Academy. With Plato's student Aristotle begins the "scientific
revolution" of the Hellenistic period culminating in the 3rd to 2nd centuries with
scholars such as Eratosthenes, Euclid, Aristarchus of Samos, Hipparchus and
Archimedes.

This period produced substantial advances in scientific knowledge,

especially in anatomy, zoology, botany, mineralogy, geography, mathematics and
astronomy; an awareness of the importance of certain scientific problems,
especially those related to the problem of change and its cause; and a recognition
of the methodological importance of applying mathematics to natural phenomena
and of undertaking empirical research.

The scholars frequently employed the principles developed in earlier Greek

thought: the application of mathematics and deliberate empirical research, in their
scientific investigations. This was passed on from ancient Greek philosophers to
medieval Muslim philosophers and scientists, to the European Renaissance and
Enlightenment, to the secular sciences of the modern day.
Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic and scientific
flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the eighth century to the
fourteenth century, with several contemporary scholars dating the end of the era
to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. This period is traditionally understood to have
begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with
the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars from
various parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds were mandated to
gather and translate all of the world's classical knowledge into the Arabic
language and subsequently development in various fields of sciences began.
Science and

technology in the Islamic world adopted and preserved knowledge and

technologies from contemporary and earlier civilizations, including Persia, Egypt,
India, China, and Greco-Roman antiquity, while making numerous improvements,
innovations and inventions.

Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject

areas, especially astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Scientific inquiry was
practiced in other subjects like alchemy and chemistry, botany and agronomy,
geography and cartography, ophthalmology, pharmacology, physics and zoology.

Islamic science was characterized by having practical purposes as well as

the goal of understanding. Astronomy was useful in determining the Qibla, which
is the direction in which to pray, botany is applied in agriculture and geography
enabled scientists to make accurate maps. Mathematics also flourished during
the Islamic Golden Age with the works of Al-Khwarizmi, Avicenna and Jamshid al
Kashi that led to advanced in algebra, trigonometry, geometry and Arabic
numerals.

There was also great progress in medicine during this period. Al-Biruni,
and Avicenna produced books that contain descriptions of the preparation of
hundred of drugs made from medicinal plants and chemical compounds. Islamic
doctors describe diseases like smallpox and measles, and challenged classical
Greek medical knowledge.

Likewise, Islamic physicists such as Ibn Al-Haytham, Al-Biruni and others

studied optics and mechanics as well as astronomy, and criticized Aristotle’s view
of motion.

The significance of medieval Islamic science has been debated by

historians. The traditionalist view holds that it lacked innovation, and was mainly
important for handing on ancient knowledge to medieval Europe. The revisionist
view holds that it constituted a scientific revolution. Whatever the case, science
flourished across a wide area around the Mediterranean and further afield, for
several centuries, in a wide range of institutions.

Science and Technology in Ancient China

Ancient Chinese scientists and engineers made significant scientific

innovations, findings and technological advances across various scientific
disciplines including the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, military
technology, mathematics, geology and astronomy.

Ancient China gave the world the Four Great Inventions that include the
compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing. These were considered as
among the most important technological advances and were only known to
Europe

1000 years later or during the end of the Middle ages. These four inventions had
a profound impact on the development of civilization throughout the world.
However, some modern Chinese scholars have opined that other Chinese
inventions were perhaps more sophisticated and had a greater impact on
Chinese civilization – the Four Great Inventions serve merely to highlight the
technological interaction between East and West.

As stated by Karl Marx, "Gunpowder, the compass, and the printing press
were the three great inventions which ushered in bourgeois society. Gunpowder
blew up the knightly class, the compass discovered the world market and found
the colonies, and the printing press was the instrument of Protestantism and the
regeneration of science in general; the most powerful lever for creating the
intellectual prerequisites.”

The Renaissance (1300 AD – 1600AD)

The 14th century was the beginning of the cultural movement of the
Renaissance, which was considered by many as the Golden Age of Science.
During the Renaissance period, great advances occurred in geography,
astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, anatomy, manufacturing, and
engineering. The rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the
Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the invention of printing democratized
learning and allowed a faster propagation of new ideas.
 Marie Boas Hall coined the term Scientific Renaissance to designate the
early phase of the Scientific Revolution, 1450–1630. More recently, Peter Dear
has argued for a two-phase model of early modern science: a Scientific
Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries, focused on the restoration of the
natural knowledge of the ancients; and a Scientific Revolution of the 17th century,
when scientists shifted from recovery to innovation.

But this initial period is usually seen as one of scientific backwardness.

There were no new developments in physics or astronomy, and the reverence for
classical sources further enshrined the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the
universe. Renaissance philosophy lost much of its rigour as the rules of logic and
deduction were seen as secondary to intuition and emotion. At the same time,
Renaissance humanism stressed that nature came to be viewed as an animate
spiritual creation that was not governed by laws or mathematics. Science would
only be revived later, with such figures as Copernicus, Gerolamo Cardano,
Francis Bacon, and Descartes.

The most important technological advance of all in this period was the
development of printing, with movable metal type, about the mid-15th century in
Germany. Johannes Gutenberg is usually called its inventor, but in fact many
people and many steps were involved. Block printing on wood came to the West

from China between 1250 and 1350, papermaking came from China by way of
the Arabs to 12th-century Spain, whereas the Flemish technique of oil painting
was the origin of the new printers’ ink. Three men of Mainz—Gutenberg and his
contemporaries Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer—seem to have taken the final
steps, casting metal type and locking it into a wooden press. The invention spread
like the wind, reaching Italy by 1467, Hungary and Poland in the 1470s, and
Scandinavia by 1483. By 1500 the presses of Europe had produced some six
million books. Without the printing press it is impossible to conceive that the
Reformation would have ever been more than a monkish quarrel or that the rise
of a new science, which was a cooperative effort of an international community,
would have occurred at all. In short, the development of printing amounted to a
communications revolution of the order of the invention of writing; and, like that
prehistoric discovery, it transformed the conditions of life. The communications
revolution immeasurably enhanced human opportunities for enlightenment and
pleasure on one hand and created previously undreamed-of possibilities for
manipulation and control on the other. The consideration of such contradictory
effects may guard us against a ready acceptance of triumphalist conceptions of
the Renaissance or of historical change in general.

The Enlightenment Period (1715 A.D. to 1789 A.D.)

 The Enlightenment Period or the Age of Reason was characterized by
radical reorientation in science, which emphasized reason over superstition and
science over blind faith. This period produced numerous books, essays,
inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The American and
French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and
respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. The
Enlightenment ultimately gave way to 19th-century Romanticism.

The Enlightenment’s important 17th-century precursors included the key

natural philosophers of the Scientific Revolution, including Galileo Galilei,
Johannes Kepler and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Its roots are usually traced to
1680s England, where in the span of three years Isaac Newton published his
“Principia Mathematica” (1686) and John Locke his “Essay Concerning Human
Understanding” (1689)—two works that provided the scientific, mathematical and
philosophical toolkit for the Enlightenment’s major advances.

In this era dedicated to human progress, the advancement of the natural

sciences is regarded as the main exemplification of, and fuel for, such progress.
Isaac Newton’s epochal accomplishment in his Principia Mathematica consists in
the comprehension of a diversity of physical phenomena – in particular the
motions of heavenly bodies, together with the motions of sublunary bodies – in
few relatively simple, universally applicable, mathematical laws, was a great
stimulus to the intellectual activity of the eighteenth century and served as a
model and inspiration for the researches of a number of Enlightenment thinkers.
Newton’s

system strongly encourages the Enlightenment conception of nature as an orderly

domain governed by strict mathematical-dynamical laws and the conception of
ourselves as capable of knowing those laws and of plumbing the secrets of
nature through the exercise of our unaided faculties. – The conception of nature,
and of how we know it, changes significantly with the rise of modern science. It
belongs centrally to the agenda of Enlightenment philosophy to contribute to the
new knowledge of nature, and to provide a metaphysical framework within which
to place and interpret this new knowledge.

Industrial Revolution (1760 - 1840)

The rise of modern science and the Industrial Revolution were closely
connected. It is difficult to show any direct effect of scientific discoveries upon the
rise of the textile or even the metallurgical industry in Great Britain, the home of
the Industrial Revolution, but there certainly was a similarity in attitude to be found
in science and nascent industry. Close observation and careful generalization
leading to practical utilization were characteristic of both industrialists and
experimentalists alike in the 18th century.

What science offered in the 18th century was the hope that careful
observation and experimentation might improve industrial production significantly.
The science of metallurgy permitted the tailoring of alloy steels to industrial
specifications, the science of chemistry permitted the creation of new
substances, like the aniline dyes, of fundamental industrial importance, and that
electricity and magnetism were harnessed in the electric dynamo and motor. Until
that period science probably profited more from industry than the other way
around. It was the steam engine that posed the problems that led, by way of a
search for a theory of steam power, to the creation of thermodynamics. Most
importantly, as industry required ever more complicated and intricate machinery,
the machine tool industry developed to provide it and, in the process, made
possible the construction of ever more delicate and refined instruments for
science. As science turned from the everyday world to the worlds of atoms and
molecules, electric currents and magnetic fields, microbes and viruses, and
nebulae and galaxies, instruments increasingly provided the sole contact with
phenomena. A large refracting telescope driven by intricate clockwork to observe
nebulae was as much a product of 19th-century heavy industry as were the
steam locomotive and the steamship.

The Industrial Revolution had one further important effect on the

development of modern science. The prospect of applying science to the
problems of industry served to stimulate public support for science.
Governments, in varying degrees and at different rates, began supporting
science even more directly, by making financial grants to scientists, by founding
research institutes, and by bestowing honors and official posts on great
scientists. By the end of the 19th century the natural philosopher following his
private interests had given way to the professional scientist with a public role.

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The main features involved in the Industrial Revolution were technological,

socioeconomic, and cultural. The technological changes included the following:
(1) the use of new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel, (2) the use of new
energy sources, including both fuels and motive power, such as coal, the steam
engine, electricity, petroleum, and the internal-combustion engine, (3) the
invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny and the power loom that
permitted increased production with a smaller expenditure of human energy, (4) a
new organization of work known as the factory system, which entailed increased
division of labor and specialization of function, (5) important developments in
transportation and communication, including the steam locomotive, steamship,
automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio, and (6) the increasing application of
science to industry. These technological changes made possible a tremendously
increased use of natural resources and the mass production of manufactured
goods.

20th Century Science: Physics and Information Age

The 20th century was an important century in the history of the sciences. It
generated entirely novel insights in all areas of research – often thanks to the
introduction of novel research methods – and it established an intimate
connection between science and technology. With this connection, science is
dealing now with the complexity of the real world. The scientific legacy of the
20th Century gave proof of the revolutionary changes in many areas of the
sciences – in particular, physics, biology, astronomy, chemistry, neurosciences
and earth and environmental sciences – and how they contributed to these
changes.

The epistemological and methodological questions as well as the

interdisciplinary aspects become ever more important in scientific research. The
common denominator of the sciences is the notion of discovery, and discovery is
an organised mode of observing nature. Twentieth century cosmology greatly
improved our knowledge of the place that man and his planet occupy in the
universe. The “wonder” that Plato and Aristotle put at the origin of thought, today
extends to science itself. Questions now arise on the origin and on the whole, its
history and its laws.

The start of the 20th century was strongly marked by Einstein’s formulation
of the theory of relativity (1905) including the unifying concept of energy related to
mass and the speed of light: E = mc2 . He made many more contributions, notably
to statistical mechanics, and he provided a great inspiring influence for many
other physicists.

In the second half of the 20th century several branches of science

continued to make great progress and we here list physics, chemistry, biology,
geology and astronomy. For example, there was the development of the
semi-conductor

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(transistor), followed by developments in nanotechnology that led to great

advances in information technology. In nuclear physics the discovery of
sub-atomic particles provided a great leap forward.

Modern physics grew in the 20th into a primary discipline contributing to all
today’s basic natural sciences, astronomy, chemistry and biology. Although it took
a hundred years since Clausius’s time for it to be fully recognized that all
biological processes have also to obey the laws of thermodynamics, the border
between the origin of the living and the non-living worlds has now at last been
blurred. The year 1953 was an important landmark for biology with the
description by Crick and Watson of the structure of DNA, the carrier of genetic
information (Rosch, 2014).

Physics has enabled us to understand the basic components of matter and

we are well on the way to an ever more consistent and unitary understanding of
the entire structure of natural reality, which we discover as being made up not
only of matter and energy but also of information and forms. The latest
developments in astrophysics are also particularly surprising: they further confirm
the great unity of physics that manifests itself clearly at each new stage of the
understanding of reality.

Biology too, with the discovery of DNA and the development of genetics,
allows us to penetrate the fundamental processes of life and to intervene in the
gene pool of certain organisms by imitating some of these natural mechanisms.
Information technology and the digital processing of information have transformed
our lifestyle and our way of communicating in the space of very few decades. The
20th century has seen medicine find a cure for many life-threatening diseases
and the beginning of organ transplants.

It is impossible to list the many other discoveries and results that have
broadened our knowledge and influenced our world outlook: from progress in
computational logic to the chemistry of materials, from the neurosciences to
robotics. Scientific research not only gives expression to the strength of rationality
in explaining the world and the way in which this is done. The application of
scientific knowledge can induce changes of environmental and thus living
conditions. It is these aspects, the interrelations between scientific progress and
social development, which together with insights into the epistemological structure
and the ethical implications of science play an important role in the life and the
work of scientists.

Science and Technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a way of describing the blurring of

boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. It’s a fusion of
advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D
printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies. It’s the
collective force behind many products and services that are fast becoming

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indispensable to modern life. Think GPS systems that suggest the fastest route to
a destination, voice-activated virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri, personalized
Netflix recommendations, and Facebook’s ability to recognize your face and tag
you in a friend’s photo (https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2018/12/what-is-the
fourth-industrial-revolution-4IR.html).

As a result of this perfect storm of technologies, the Fourth Industrial

Revolution is paving the way for transformative changes in the way we live and
radically disrupting almost every business sector. It’s all happening at an
unprecedented, whirlwind pace.

The easiest way to understand the Fourth Industrial Revolution is to focus on

the technologies driving it. Artificial intelligence (AI) describes computers that can
“think” like humans — recognizing complex patterns, processing information, drawing
conclusions, and making recommendations. AI is used in many ways, from spotting
patterns in huge piles of unstructured data to powering the autocorrect on your phone.
New computational technologies are making computers smarter. They enable
computers to process vast amounts of data faster than ever before, while the advent
of the “cloud” has allowed businesses to safely store and access their information from
anywhere with internet access, at any time. Quantum computing technologies now in
development will eventually make computers millions of times more powerful. These
computers will have the potential to supercharge AI, create highly complex data
models in seconds, and speed up the discovery of new materials.
Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive digital experiences (using a VR headset)
that simulate the real world, while augmented reality merges the digital and physical
worlds. Examples include L’Oréal’s makeup app, which allows users to digitally
experiment with makeup products before buying them, and the Google Translate
phone app, which allows users to scan and instantly translate street signs, menus, and
other text.
Biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop new
technologies and products for a range of uses, including developing new
pharmaceuticals and materials, more efficient industrial manufacturing processes, and
cleaner, more efficient energy sources. Researchers in Stockholm, for example, are
working on what is being touted as the strongest biomaterial ever produced.
Robotics refers to the design, manufacture, and use of robots for personal and
commercial use. While we’re yet to see robot assistants in every home, technological
advances have made robots increasingly complex and sophisticated. They are used in
fields as wide-ranging as manufacturing, health and safety, and human assistance.
3D printing allows manufacturing businesses to print their own parts, with less
tooling, at a lower cost, and faster than via traditional processes. Plus, designs can be
customized to ensure a perfect fit.

13

Innovative materials, including plastics, metal alloys, and biomaterials, promise

to shake up sectors including manufacturing, renewable energy, construction, and
 healthcare.
The IoT describes the idea of everyday items — from medical wearables that
monitor users’ physical condition to cars and tracking devices inserted into parcels —
being connected to the internet and identifiable by other devices. A big plus for
businesses is that they can collect customer data from constantly connected products,
allowing them to better gauge how customers use products and tailor marketing
campaigns accordingly. There are also many industrial applications, such as farmers
putting IoT sensors into fields to monitor soil attributes and inform decisions such as
when to fertilize.
Energy capture, storage, and transmission represent a growing market sector,
spurred by the falling cost of renewable energy technologies and improvements in
battery storage capacity.

Activity:

1. List down the scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs in each

period. You may conduct additional researches and share what you have found in
the class.

a. Ancient Times to 600 BC

__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

b. Advent of Science (600 BC to 500 AD)

__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

c. Islamic Golden Age

__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

d. Ancient China and the Far East

__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

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 e. Renaissance
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

f. Enlightenment Period
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

g. Industrial Revolution
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

h. 20th century
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

i. Fourth Industrial Revolution

__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________
__________________________ __________________________

2. If given a chance to live back in time and considering the influence of science and
technology in the society and the environment, which period would you choose
and why? Would you prefer a less technologically driven society or you wouldn’t
trade the comforts of modern life?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

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Assignment:

Film Viewing.

1. Watch the World’s Greatest Invention

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYYyfAl9Usc) and then answer the following
guide questions.
a. Among the mentioned greatest invention in the video, which do you think created
the most impact in your life now? Why?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

b. Name one invention and discuss how it transformed the society.

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

2. Watch Stephen Colbert’s interview with Neil Tyson on YouTube

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXh9RQCvxmg&noredirect=1) and then
answer the following guide questions.

Guide Questions:

1. Stephen Colbert starts the interview by asking Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson, “Is it
better to know or not to know?” Ponder on this question and decide which one
is better. Give as many reasons as to why.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
 ______________________________________________________________

16

2. Enumerate the various statements that Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson said about
the importance of science literacy and its relationship to society.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
 17

C. Historical Development of Science and Technology in the Philippines

The current state of science and technology in the country can be traced back to its
historical development and the latent events that helped shape it since the pre-colonial
period to contemporary time. What we have or lack today in terms of science and
technology is very much an effect of the government policies that had been enacted by
past public officials in trying to develop a technological society that is responsive to the
needs of time.
 Pre-Spanish Era.

There is not much written about the Philippines during pre-colonial time but
analysis from archeological artifacts revealed that the first inhabitants in the archipelago
who settled in Palawan and Batangas around 40 000 years ago have made simple tools
or weapons of stone which eventually developed techniques for sawing, drilling and
polishing hard stones. This very primitive technology was brought by primal needs of
survival by hunting wild animals and gathering fruits and vegetables in the forest. They
learned that by polishing hard stones, they can develop sharp objects that are useful in
their day to day activities. From this early, we can see that technology was developed
because of a great necessity.

Still on its primitive state, the first inhabitants in the country are learning what can
be harnessed from the environment. They have come to understand that when clay is
mixed with 2 water and then shaped into something before sun drying, it hardens to an
object that can also be useful to them. And because clay is moldable, it can be shaped
into various objects.

As the early Filipinos flourished, they have learned how to extract, smelt and refine
metals like copper, gold, bronze and iron from nature and consequently fashion them
into tools and implements. At this point, the inhabitants of the country are showing a
deeper understanding of their nature because they were able to obtain valuable
resources from nature.
As the inhabitants shifted from wandering from one place to another and learned to
settle in areas near the water source, they also learned how to weave cotton, engaged
themselves in agriculture and are knowledgeable on building boats for coastal trade.

From the above mentioned facts, it can be concluded that primitive Filipinos are
practicing science and technology in their everyday lives. The ancient crafts of stone
carving, pottery and smelting of metals involves a lot of science, which is understanding
the nature of matter involved. The ingenuity of the Ifugaos in building the Banaue Rice
Terraces The smelting of metals exhibited the primitive Filipino’s knowledge on the
composition of alloy and the optimum temperature that will produce the metal with
acceptable tensile strength. All in all, the primitive Filipinos were living in perfect
harmony with nature and they obtain from it what is just needed in their everyday life
through a very simple science of understanding how mother nature operates

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Spanish Colonial Era.

As claimed by Caoili (1983), the beginnings of modern science and technology in

the country can be traced back to the Spanish regime because they established schools,
hospitals and started scientific research that had important consequences in the
development of the country. These schools, which are mostly run by Spanish friars,
formed the first Filipino professionals. The The 3 highest institution of learning during this
time was the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas.

But the very strict hold of the church among citizens and its intervention and
meddling to the government propelled by fear of intellectual awakening among Filipinos
have greatly hindered the progress of these professionals to further enhance their
knowledge, conduct scientific investigations and contribute to the advancement of
society. But a few of persistent Filipino scientists succeeded by educating themselves
abroad. One notable example of course is our national hero, the great Dr. Jose P. Rizal.
Dr. Jose Rizal is the epitome of the Renaissance man in the Philippine context. He is a
scientist, a doctor, an engineer (he designed and built a water system in Dapitan), a
journalist, a novelist, an urban planner and a hero. Being a doctor and scientist, he had
extensive knowledge on medicine and was able to operate his mother’s blinding eye.
When he was deported in Dapitan, his knowledge on science and engineering was
translated into technology by creating a water system that improved the sanitation of
households in the area. Dr. Jose

Dr. Jose Rizal was a brilliant man and his life stood out among his contemporaries.
But it cannot be said that there is no contribution to science and technology among the
Filipino men and women during the Spanish era. The charity hospitals became the
breeding ground for scientific researches on pharmacy and medicine, with great focus
on problems of infectious diseases, their causes and possible remedies. And in 1887,
the Laboratorio Municipal de Ciudad de Manila was created and whose functions were
to conduct biochemical analyses for public health and to undertake specimen
examinations for clinical and medico-legal cases. Its publication, probably the first
scientific journal in the country was titled Cronica de Ciencias Medicas de Filipinas
showed the studies undertaken during that time.

As the colonization of the Spaniards lengthened, they began to exploit the natural
resources of the country through agriculture, mining of metals and minerals and
establishing various kinds of industries to further promote economic growth. As such,
scientific research on these fields were encouraged by the government. By the
nineteenth century, Manila has become a cosmopolitan center and modern amenities
were introduced to the city. However, little is known about the accomplishments of
scientific bodies commissioned by the Spanish government during this time. Because of
limited scientific research and its consequent translation to technology during the
Spanish regime, none of the industries prosper. The Philippines had evolved into a
primary agricultural exporting economy, and this is not because of the researches
undertaken on

19

this field, but was largely because of the influx of foreign capital and technology which
brought modernization of some sectors, notably sugar and hemp production.

American Period

If the development in science and technology was very slow during the Spanish
regime, the Philippines saw a rapid growth during the American occupation and was
made possible by the government’s extensive public education system from elementary
to tertiary schools. The establishment of various public tertiary schools like the Philippine
Normal School and University of the Philippines provided the needs for professionally
trained Filipinos in building the government’s organization and programs. The growth
and application of science were still concentrated on the health sector in the form of
biochemical analyses in hospitals. The government supported basic and applied
research in the medical, agricultural and related sciences. The University of the
Philippines Los Baños opened the College of Agriculture in 1909 while the University of
the Philippines – Diliman opened the Colleges of Arts, Engineering and Veterinary
Medicine in 1910. The College of Medicine was opened four years later.

During this time, there were already quite a number of qualified Filipino physicians
who held teaching positions in the College of Medicine, whereas most of the early
instructors and professors in other colleges such as in the sciences and engineering
were Americans and foreigners. Capacity building programs that include sending
qualified Filipinos abroad for advanced training were conducted to eventually fill up the
teaching positions in Philippine universities. Moreover, the American colonial
government sent Filipino youths to be educated as teachers, engineers, physicians and
lawyers in American colleges to further capacitate the Filipinos in various fields.

However, there was difficulty in recruiting students for science and technology
courses like veterinary medicine, engineering, agriculture, applied sciences and
industrial-vocational courses. The enrollment in these courses were dismal that the
government had to offer scholarships to attract students. The unpopularity of these
courses stemmed from the Filipinos’ disdain toward manual work that developed from
the 400 years under Spanish colonization. The Filipinos then prefer prestigious
professions at that time like priesthood, law and medicine.

The government provided more support for the development of science and
created the Bureau of Government Laboratories in and was later changed to Bureau of
Science. It was composed of a biological laboratory, chemical laboratory, serum
laboratory for the production of virus vaccine, serums and prophylactics, and a library.
The bureau was initially managed by American senior scientists but as more Filipinos
were trained and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, they eventually took over
their positions. The Bureau of Science served as the primary training ground for Filipino
scientists and paved the way for pioneering scientific research, most especially on the
study of various tropical
diseases that were prevalent during those times like leprosy, tuberculosis, cholera,
dengue fever, malaria and beri-beri. Another great contribution of the Bureau of Science
to the development of science and technology in the country was the publication of the

20
Philippine Journal of Science. This scientific journal published researches done in local
laboratories and reported global scientific developments that had relevance to the
Philippine society. The Bureau of Science became the primary research center of the
Philippines until World War II. Lastly, on December 8, 1933, the National Research
Council of the Philippines was established.

Commonwealth Period

When the Americans granted independence and the Commonwealth government

was established, the Filipinos were busy in working towards economic reliance but
acknowledge the importance and vital role of science and technology for the economic
development of the country by declaring that “The State shall promote scientific research
and invention…” The short-lived Commonwealth Government was succeeded by the
Japanese occupation when the Pacific war broke out in 1941. The prevailing situations
during the time of Commonwealth period to the Japanese regime had made
developments in science and technology practically impossible. This is also true when
World War II ended and left Manila, the country’s capital, in ruins. The government had
to rebuild again and normalize the operations in the whole country.

Science and Technology since Independence

In 1946 the Bureau of Science was replaced by the Institute of Science and was
placed under the Office of the President of the Philippines. However, the agency faced
lack of financial support from the government and experienced planning and
coordination problems. In a report by the US Economic Survey to the Philippines in
1950, there is a lack of basic information which were necessities to the country's
industries, lack of support of experimental work and minimal budget for scientific
research and low salaries of scientists employed by the government. In 1958, during the
regime of President Carlos P. Garcia, the Philippine Congress passed the Science Act
of 1958 which established the National Science Development Board (NSDB).

The Philippine government focused on science and technology institutional

capacity-building which were undertaken by establishing infrastructure-support facilities
such as new research agencies and development trainings. However good these
projects were, it produced insignificant effects because of lack of coordination and
planning, specifically technology planning, between concerned agencies which hindered
them from performing their assigned functions effectively. This was aptly illustrated in
the unplanned activities of the researchers within the agencies. Most areas of research
were naively left to the discretion of the researchers under the assumption that they
were working for the interests of the country. They were instructed to look for
technologies and scientific studies with good commercialization potential. Without clear
research policy guidelines, researches were done for their own sake, leaving to chance
the commercialization of the results.

21

Likewise, during this time, rebuilding the country involved establishing more state
funded manual and trading schools which would eventually become the current state
universities and colleges. The trade schools produced craftsmen, tradesmen and
technicians that helped in shaping a more technological Philippines while still being an
agricultural based nation. Eventually, when these trade schools were elevated to college
and university status, they produced much of the country’s professionals, although there
was a great disparity on the low proportion of those in agriculture, medical and natural
sciences with those from teacher training and commerce/business administration
courses which had higher number of graduates. The increase in the number of
graduates led to the rise of professional organizations of scientists and engineers.
These organizations were formed to promote professional interests and create and
monitor the standards of practice.

As summarized by Caoili, “There has been little innovation in the education and
training of scientists and engineers since independence in 1946. This is in part due to
the conservative nature of self-regulation by the professional associations. Because of
specialized training, vertical organizations by disciplines and lack of liaison between
professions, professional associations have been unable to perceive the dynamic
relationship between science, technology and society and the relevance of their
training to Philippine conditions.

Science and Technology in the 1960s to 1990s

During these years, the government gave greater importance to science and
technology. The government declared in Section 9(1) of the 1973 Philippine Constitution
that the “advancement of science and technology shall have priority in the national
development.”

On April 6, 1968, Pres. Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed the 35-hectare land in

Bicutan, Taguig as the site of the Philippine Science Community. Then in 1969, the
government provided funds to private universities to encourage them to conduct
research and create courses in science and technology. The government also
conducted seminars for public and private high school and college science teachers,
training programs and scholarships for graduate and undergraduate science scholars,
and workshops on fisheries and oceanography.

In the 1970s, focus on science and technology was given to applied research and
the main objective was to generate products and processes that were supposed to have
a greater beneficial impact to the society. Relative to this, several research institutes
were established under the National Science Development Board (NSDB) which
includes the Philippine Coconut Research Institute and Philippine Textile Research
Institute. Moreover, the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission, another agency under
NSDB, explored the uses of atomic energy for economic development. To prepare the
pool of scientists who will work on Philippine Atomic Commission, Pres. Marcos
assisted 107

22

institutions in undertaking nuclear energy work by sending scientists abroad to study

nuclear science and technology, and providing basic training to 482 scientists, doctors,
engineers and technicians. Then in 1972, by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 4, the
National Grains Authority was created and it was tasked to improve the rice and corn
industry and thereby help in the economic development of the country. This was
followed by the creation of Philippine Council for Agricultural Research to support the
progressive development of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in the country. The
Marcos
administration also established the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and
Astronomical Service Administration (PAGASA) under the Department of National
Defense to provide environmental protection and to utilize scientific knowledge to ensure
the safety of the people through Presidential Decree No. 78, s. 1972. On the following
year, the Philippine National Oil Company was created by virtue of Presidential Decree
No. 334, s. 1973, to promote industrial and economic development through effective and
efficient use of energy sources. To strengthen the scientific culture in the country, the
National Academy of Science and Technology was established under Presidential
Decree No. 1003-A, s. 1976. The National Academy of Science and Technology was
composed of scientists with “innovative achievement in the basic and applied sciences”
who will serve as the reservoir of scientific and technological expertise for the country.

In the 1980s, science and technology was still focused on applied research. In
1982, NSDB was further reorganized into a National Science and Technology Authority
(NSTA) composed of four research and development Councils; Philippine Council for
Agriculture and Resources Research and Development (PCARRD); Philippine Council
for Industry and Energy Research Development (PCIERD); Philippine Council for
Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and the National Research Council of the
Philippines (NRCP). NSTA has also eight research and development institutes and
support agencies under it. These are actually the former organic and attached agencies
of NSDB which have themselves been reorganized.

The expanding number of science agencies has given rise to a demand for high
calibre scientists and engineers to undertake research and staff universities and
colleges. Hence, measures have also been taken towards the improvement of the
country’s science and manpower. In March 1983, Executive Order No. 889 was issued
by the President which provided for the establishment of a national network of centers
of excellence in basic sciences. As a consequence, six new institutes were created: The
National Institutes of Physics, Geological Sciences, Natural Sciences Research,
Chemistry, Biology and Mathematical Sciences. Related to this efforts was the
establishment of a Scientific Career System in the Civil Service by Presidential Decree
No. 901 on 19 July 1983. This is designed to attract more qualified scientists to work in
government and encourage young people to pursue science degrees and careers.

In 1986, under the Aquino administration, the National Science and Technology
Authority was replaced by the Department of Science and Technology, giving science
and technology a representation in the cabinet. Under the Medium Term Philippine
Development Plan for the years 1987-1992, science and technology's role in economic
recovery and sustained economic growth was highlighted. In this period, science and

23

technology was one of the top three priorities of the government towards economic
recovery.

With the agency's elevation to full cabinet stature by virtue of Executive Order 128
signed on 30 January 1987, the functions and responsibilities of DOST expanded
correspondingly to include the following: (1) Pursue the declared state policy of
supporting local scientific and technological effort; (2) Develop local capability to
achieve technological self-reliance; (3) Encourage greater private sector participation in
research and development. moreover, funding for the science and technology sector
was tripled from 464 million in 1986 to 1.7 billion in 1992.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is the premiere science and
technology body in the country charged with the twin mandate of providing central
direction, leadership and coordination of all scientific and technological activities, and of
formulating policies, programs and projects to support national development. The
Science and Technology Master Plan was formulated which aimed at the modernization
of the production sector, upgrading research activities, and development of
infrastructure for science and technological purposes. A Research and Development
Plan was also formulated to examine and determine which areas of research needed
attention and must be given priority. The criteria for identifying the program to be
pursued were, development of local materials, probability of success, potential of
product in the export market, and the its strategic nature. The grants for the research
and development programs was included in the Omnibus Investment Law.

During President Fidel Ramos’s term, there was a significant increase in personnel
specializing in the science and technology field. In 1998, there was an estimated 3,000
competent scientists and engineers in the Philippines. Adding to the increase of
scientists would be the result of the two newly built Philippine Science High Schools in
Visayas and Mindanao which promotes further development of young kids through
advance S&T curriculum. The government provided 3,500 scholarships for students
who were taking up professions related to S&T. Priority for S&T personnel increased
when Magna Carta for Science and Technology Personnel (Republic Act No. 8439) was
established. The award was published in order to give incentives and rewards for
people who have been influential in the field of S&T.

Still under the Ramos administration, DOST established the “Science and
Technology Agenda for National Development (STAND)”, a program that was significant
to the field of S&T. It identified seven export products, 11 domestic needs, three other
supporting industries, and the coconut industry as priority investment areas. The seven
identified export products were computer software; fashion accessories; gifts, toys, and
houseware; marine products; metal fabrications; furniture; and dried fruits. The domestic
needs identified were food, housing, health, clothing, transportation, communication,
disaster mitigation, defense, environment, manpower development, and energy. Three
additional support industries were included in the list of priority sectors, namely,
packaging, chemicals, and metals because of their linkages with the above sectors.

24

In the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, numerous laws and projects were

implemented which concerns both the environment and science to push technology as a
tool to increase the country’s economic level. This is to help increase the productivity
from Science, Technology and Innovations (STI) and help benefit the poor people.
Moreover, the term “Filipinnovation” was the coined term used in helping the Philippines
to be an innovation hub in Asia.

The STI was developed further by strengthening the schools and education system
such as the Philippine Science High School (PSHS), which focuses in science,
technology and mathematics in their curriculum. This helps schools produce get more
involve in this sector. Private sectors were also encouraged to participate in developing
the schools through organizing events and sponsorships. Future Filipino scientists and
innovators can be produced through this system.

Recently, the Philippines ranked 73rd out of 128 economies in terms of Science
and Technology and Innovation (STI) index, citing the country’s strength in research and
commercialization of STI ideas (DOST, 2018). However, a study by the Philippine
Institute for Development Studies highlighted the weak ties between innovation-driven
firms and the government, and it also identified the country’s low expenditure in
research and development (R&D). This is the reason the government is now extending
all its efforts to reach out with the private sector, explaining that STI plays an important
role in economic and social progress and is a key driver for a long-term growth of an
economy. Technology adoption allows a country’s firms and citizens to benefit from
innovations created in other countries, and allows it to catch up and even leap-frog
obsolete technologies. Technology adoption, the official said, allows a country’s firms
and citizens to benefit from innovations created in other countries, and allows it to catch
up and even leap-frog obsolete technologies.

Hopes in Philippine Science and Technology

 Despite the many inadequacies, from funding to human capital, there are some
science and technology-intensive research and capacity-building projects which resulted
in products which are currently being used successfully and benefits the society.

One of these is the micro-satellite. In April 2016, the country launched into space
its first micro-satellite called Diwata-1. It was designed, developed and assembled by
Filipino researchers and engineers under the guidance of Japanese experts. The Diwata
(deity in English) satellite provides real-time, high-resolution and multi-color infrared
images for various applications, including meteorological imaging, crop and ocean
productivity measurement and high-resolution imaging of natural and man-made
features. It enables a more precise estimate of the country’s agricultural production,
provides images of watersheds and floodplains for a better understanding of water
available for irrigation, power and domestic consumption. The satellite also provides
accurate information on any disturbance and degradation of forest and upland areas.

25

The country also has the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards

(NOAH), which uses the Lidar (light detection and ranging) technology. Project NOAH
was initiated in June 2012 to help manage risks associated with natural hazards and
disasters. The project developed hydromet sensors and high-resolution geo-hazard
maps, which were generated by light detection and ranging technology for flood
modeling. Noah helps the government in providing timely warning with a lead time of at
least six hours in the wake of impending floods. The country is now training the
Cambodians on this technology, as part of the partnerships among ASEAN countries,
just like in the case of Japan which assisted the country’s scientists and engineers in
building its first micro-satellite.

Another hope lies in the so-called Intelligent Operation Center Platform.

Established through a collaboration between the local government of Davao City and
IBM Philippines Inc., the center resulted in the creation of a dashboard that allows
authorized government agencies, such as police, fire and anti-terrorism task force, to
use analytics software for monitoring events and operations in real time.

Current Initiatives in Science and Technology in the Country

DOST, in cooperation with HEIs and research institutions, established advanced

facilities that seek to spur R&D activities and provide MSMEs access to testing services
needed to increase their productivity and competitive advantage.

One is the Advanced Device and Materials Testing Laboratories. The center
houses advanced equipment for failure analysis and materials characterization to
address advanced analytical needs for quality control, materials identification and R&D.
Closely related to this facility is the Electronics Products Development Center, used to
design, develop and test hardware and software for electronic products.

There are also high-performance computing facilities that perform tests and run
computationally intensive applications for numerical weather prediction, climate
modeling, as well as analytics and data modeling and archiving.

The Philippines could also boast of its Genome Center, a core facility that
combines basic and applied research for the development of health diagnostics,
therapeutics, DNA forensics and preventive products, and improved crop varieties.

The country also has drug-discovery facilities, which address the requirements for
producing high-quality and globally acceptable drug candidates. She said the Philippines
also has nanotechnology centers, which provide technical services and enabling
environment for interdisciplinary and collaborative R&D in various nanotechnology
applications.

There are also radiation processing facilities that are used to degrade, graft, or
crosslink polymers, monomers, or chemical compounds for industrial, agricultural,
environmental and medical applications. The Philippines could also boast of its Die and

26

Mold Solutions Center, which enhances the competitiveness of the local tool and die
sector through the localization of currently imported dies and molds.

These are reflections that we are advancing, albeit slowly, to a culture that
embraces STI as a sure path to growth.

Activity:

Identify a contemporary Filipino invention and discuss how it improved the lives of our
countrymen. (Example: SALt lamp or “sustainable alternative lighting” lamp powered by
galvanic reaction of an anode with saline water invented by Aisa Mijeno)

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27

D. Paradigm Shift

What is a paradigm?

A scientific paradigm is a framework containing all the commonly accepted

views about a subject, conventions about what direction research should take and how
it should be performed.

The philosopher Thomas Kuhn suggested that a paradigm includes “the practices
that define a scientific discipline at a certain point in time." Paradigms contain all the
distinct, established patterns, theories, common methods and standards that allow us to
recognize an experimental result as belonging to a field or not.

Science proceeds by accumulating support for hypotheses which in time become

models and theories. But those models and theories themselves exist within a larger
theoretical framework. The vocabulary and concepts in Newton’s three laws or the
central dogma in biology are examples of scientific “open resources" that scientists
have adopted and which now form part of the scientific paradigm.
 Paradigms are historically and culturally bound. For example, a modern Chinese
medical researcher with a background in eastern medicine, will operate within a different
paradigm than a western doctor from the 1800s.

A paradigm dictates:

what is observed and measured

the questions we ask about those observations
how the questions are formulated
how the results are interpreted
how research is carried out
what equipment is appropriate

Many students who opt to study science do so with the belief that they are
undertaking the most rational path to learning about objective reality. But science, much
like any other discipline, is subject to ideological idiosyncrasies, preconceptions and
hidden assumptions.

In fact, Kuhn strongly suggested that research in a deeply entrenched paradigm

invariably ends up reinforcing that paradigm, since anything that contradicts it is ignored
or else pressed through the preset methods until it conforms to already established
dogma.

The body of pre-existing evidence in a field conditions and shapes the collection
and interpretation of all subsequent evidence. The certainty that the current paradigm is
reality itself is precisely what makes it so difficult to accept alternatives.

28

What is a Paradigm Shift?

"The successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the
usual developmental pattern of mature science" - Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions.
Figure 1 Paradigm shift. Source: https://thesaurus.plus/

The shift from one paradigm to another occurs when enough anomalies to the
current paradigm build up, causing scientists to question the foundational principles
upon which their worldview rests. During “normal science,” when the current paradigm
is in place, these anomalies are discounted as acceptable levels of error. However,
during “revolutionary science” or a paradigm shift, these anomalies become the center
of attention as scientists attempt to construct a new world view that incorporates and
explains them. This period of intense focus on explaining anomalies and developing a
new paradigm is considered “revolutionary science,” and it is sparked by a “crisis”
where the old paradigm fails explain key anomalies or outliers. Once a new paradigm is
developed, however, there is a return to “normal science” under the new worldview.

Figure 2 Paradigm Shift

Source: https://edtosavetheworld.com

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 An Example of a Paradigm Shift

Many physicists in the 19th century were convinced that the Newtonian paradigm
that had reigned for 200 years was the pinnacle of discovery and that scientific progress
was more or less a question of refinement. When Einstein published his theories on
General Relativity, it was not just another idea that could fit comfortably into the existing
paradigm. Instead, Newtonian Physics itself was relegated to being a special subclass of
the greater paradigm ushered in by General Relativity. Newton’s three laws are still
faithfully taught in schools, however we now operate within a paradigm that puts those
laws into a much broader context.

Interestingly, Kuhn’s theory itself was something of a game changer at the time,
since scientists were not accustomed to thinking of what they were doing in such
metaphysical terms. Kuhn’s theories are today understood to be part of a greater
paradigm shift in the social sciences, and have also been modified since their original
publication.

Kuhn later conceded that the process of scientific advancement might be more
gradual. For example, Relativity did not completely prove Newton wrong, but merely
reframed his theory. Even the Copernican revolution was a little more gradual in
replacing Ptolemy's beliefs.

The concept of paradigm is closely related to the Platonic and Aristotelian views
of knowledge. Aristotle believed that knowledge could only be based upon what is
already known, the basis of the scientific method. Plato believed that knowledge should
be judged by what something could become, the end result, or final purpose. Plato's
philosophy is more like the intuitive leaps that cause scientific revolution; Aristotle's the
patient gathering of data.

Activity:

Create a poster or caricature that depicts a paradigm shift in science history.

Share and explain your work in the class.

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 Chapter 2
Intellectual Revolutions that Defined Society

Introduction

This section provides students with background on the different intellectuals who
made great contributions to science that propelled scientific and technological
revolutions. Emphasis is given on how these intellectual revolutions shape and
transform society.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

1. Articulate ways by which society is transformed by science and technology.

What is an Intellectual Revolution?

An intellectual revolution is a period where paradigm shifts occurred and where

scientific beliefs that have been widely embraced and accepted by the people were
challenged and opposed. Historically, this intellectual revolution can be summed up as
the “replacement of Aristotelian ethics and Christian morality by a new type of decision
making which may be termed instrumental reasoning or cost-benefit analysis” (Wootton
as cited by McCarthy, 2019).

The Birth of Modern Science

Western science, like so many other aspects of Western Civilization, was born
with the ancient Greeks. They were the first to explain the world in terms of natural laws
rather than myths about gods and heroes. They also passed on the idea of the value of
math and experiment in science, although they usually thought only in terms of one to
the exclusion of the other.

The most influential figure in Western science until the 1600's, was the
philosopher, Aristotle, who created a body of scientific theory that towered like a
colossus over Western Civilization for some 2000 years. Given the limitations under
which the Greeks were working compared to now, Aristotle's theories made sense when
taken in a logical order.

However, there were several factors that worked both to overthrow Aristotle's
theories and to preserve it. First of all, Aristotle's theories relied very little on experiment,
which left them vulnerable to anyone who chose to perform such experiments. But
attacking one part of Aristotle's system involved attacking the whole thing, which made it
a daunting task for even the greatest thinkers of the day. Secondly, the Church had
grafted Aristotle's theories onto its theology, thus making any attack on Aristotle an
attack on the tradition and the Church itself.
 31

Finally, there were the Renaissance scholars who were uncovering other Greek
authors who contradicted Aristotle. This was unsettling, since these scholars had a
reverence for all ancient knowledge as being nearly infallible. However, finding
contradicting authorities forced the Renaissance scholars to try to figure out which ones
were right. When their findings showed that neither theory was right, they had to think for
themselves and find a new theory that worked. This encouraged skepticism,
freethinking, and experimentation, all of which are essential parts of modern science.

Pattern of development

The combination of these factors generated a cycle that undermined Aristotle, but
also slowed down the creation of a new set of theories. New observations would be
made that seemed to contradict Aristotle's theories. This would lead to new
explanations, but always framed in the context of the old beliefs, thus patching up the
Aristotelian system. However, more observations would take place, leading to more
patching of the old system, and so on. The first person who started this slow process of
dismantling Aristotle's cosmology was Copernicus. His findings would reinforce the
process of finding new explanations, which would lead to the work of Kepler and
Galileo. The work of these three men would lead to many new questions and theories
about the universe until Isaac Newton would take the new data and synthesize it into a
new set of theories that more accurately explained the universe.

A. Copernican Revolution

Nicolas Copernicus was a Polish scholar working at the University of Padua

in northern Italy. The problem he wrestled with was the paths of planetary orbits.
Through the centuries close observations had shown that the heavens do not always
appear to move in perfect, uninterrupted circles. Rather, they sometimes seem to
move backwards in what are known as retrogradations. In order to account for these
irregularities, astronomers did not do away with Aristotle's theory of perfectly circular
orbits around the earth. Instead, they expanded upon it, adding smaller circular
orbits (epicycles) that spun off the main orbits. These more or less accounted for
the retrogradations seen in orbits. Each time a new irregularity was observed, a new
epicycle was added. By the 1500's, the model of the universe had some 80
epicycles attached to ten crystalline spheres (one for the moon, sun, each of the
five known planets, the totality of the stars, a sphere to move the other spheres, and
heaven). The second century Greek astronomer, Ptolemy was the main authority
who put order to and passed this cumbersome system of epicycles to posterity.

Copernicus' solution was basically geometric. By placing the sun at the center
of the universe and having the earth orbit it, he reduced the unwieldy number of
epicycles from 80 to 34. His book, Concerning the Revolutions of the Celestial Worlds,
published in 1543, laid the foundations for a revolution in how Europeans would view
the world and its place in the universe. However, Copernicus' intention was not to
create a radically new theory, but to get back to even older ideas by such Greeks as

32

Plato and Pythagoras who believed in a heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Once
again, ancient authorities were set against one another, leaving it for others to
develop their own theories.

It took some 150 years after Copernicus' death in 1543 to achieve a new
model of the universe that worked. The first step was compiling more data that
tarnished the perfection of the Ptolemaic universe and forced men to re-evaluate
their beliefs.

Johannes Kepler

At this time, Tycho Brahe, using only the naked eye, tracked the entire orbits
of various stars and planets. Previously, astronomers would only track part of an
orbit at a time and assume that orbit was in a perfect circle. Brahe kept extensive
records of his observations, but did not really know what to do with them. That task
was left to his successor, Johannes Kepler.

Kepler was a brilliant mathematician who had a mystical vision of the

mathematical perfection of the universe that owed a great deal to the ancient Greek
mathematician Pythagoras. Despite these preoccupations, Kepler was open minded
enough to realize that Brahe's data showed the planetary orbits were not circular.
Finally, his calculations showed that those orbits were elliptical.

Galileo

As important as Kepler's conclusions was his method of arriving at it. He was

the first to successfully use math to define the workings of the cosmos. Although
such a conclusion as elliptical orbits inevitably met with fierce opposition, the
combination of Brahe's observations and Kepler's math helped break the perfection
of the Aristotelian universe. However, it was the work of an Italian astronomer,
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), armed with a new invention, the telescope, which would
further shatter the old theory and lead the way to a new one.

Using his telescope, Galileo saw the sun's perfection marred by sunspots and
the moon's perfection marred by craters. He also saw four moons orbiting Jupiter. In
his book, The Starry Messenger (1611), he reported these disturbing findings and
spread the news across Europe. Most people could not understand Kepler's math,
but anyone could look through a telescope and see for himself the moon's craters
and Jupiter's moons.
 The Church tried to preserve the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic view of the
universe by clamping down on Galileo and his book and made him promise not to
preach his views. However, in 1632, Galileo published his next book, Dialogue on the
Great World Systems, which technically did not preach the Copernican theory (which
Galileo believed in), but was only a dialogue presenting both views "equally". Galileo
got his point across by having the advocate of the Church and Aristotelian view

33

named Simplicius (Simpleton). He was quickly faced with the Inquisition and the
threat of torture. Being an old man of 70, he recanted his views. However, it was too
late. Word was out, and the heliocentric heresy was gaining new followers daily.

Galileo's work was the first comprehensive attack on the

Aristotelian/Ptolemaic cosmic model. He treated celestial objects as being subject to
the same laws as terrestrial objects. However, Galileo was still enthralled with
perfect circular motion and, as a result, did not come up with the synthesis of all
these new bits of information into a new comprehensive model of the universe. This
was left to the last, and probably greatest, giant of the age, Isaac Newton.

Isaac Newton

The story of Newton being hit on the head by an apple may very well be true.
However, the significance of this popular tale is usually lost. People had seen apples
fall out of trees for thousands of years, but Newton realized, in a way no one else
had realized, that the same force pulling the apples to earth was keeping the moon
in its orbit. In order to prove this mathematically, Newton had to invent a whole new
branch of math, calculus, for figuring out rates of motion and change. The genius of
Newton in physics, as well as William Harvey in medicine and Mendeleev in
chemistry, was not so much in his new discoveries, as in his ability to take the
isolated bits and pieces of the puzzle collected by his predecessors and fit them
together. In retrospect, his synthesis seems so simple, but it took tremendous
imagination and creativity to break the bonds of the old way of thinking and see a
radically different picture.

The implications of Newton's theory of gravity can easily escape us, since we
now take it for granted that physical laws apply the same throughout the universe. To
the mentality of the 1600’s, which saw a clear distinction between the laws
governing the terrestrial and celestial elements, it was a staggering revelation. His
three laws of motion were simple, could be applied everywhere, and could be used
with calculus to solve any problems of motion that came up.

The universe that emerged was radically different from that of Aristotle.
Thanks to Newton, it was within our grasp to understand, predict, and increasingly
manipulate the laws of the universe in ways no one had been able to do before.
Newton's work also completed the fusion of math promoted by Renaissance
humanists, Aristotelian logic pushed by medieval university professors, and
experiment to test a hypothesis pioneered by such men as Leonardo da Vinci and
Galileo into what we call the scientific method. This fusion had gradually been
taking place since the Renaissance, but the invention of calculus made math a
much more dynamic tool in predicting and manipulating the laws of nature.

The printing of Newton's book, Principia Mathematica, in 1687 is often seen as

the start of the Enlightenment (1687-1789). It was a significant turning point in
history, for, armed with the tools of Newton's laws and calculus, scientists had an

34

unprecedented faith in their ability to understand, predict, and manipulate the laws of
nature for their own purposes. This sense of power popularized science for other
intellectuals and rulers in Europe, turning it into virtual religion for some in the
Enlightenment. Even the geometrically trimmed shrubbery of Versailles offers
testimony to that faith in our power over nature. Not until this century has that faith
been seriously undermined or put into a more realistic perspective.

B. The Darwinian Revolution

The publication in 1859 of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin ushered

in a new era in the intellectual history of humanity. Darwin is deservedly given credit
for the theory of biological evolution: he accumulated evidence demonstrating that
organisms evolve and discovered the process, natural selection, by which they
evolve. But the importance of Darwin's achievement is that it completed the
Copernican revolution initiated three centuries earlier, and thereby radically
changed our conception of the universe and the place of humanity in it.

The discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton in the sixteenth

and seventeenth centuries, had gradually ushered in the notion that the workings of
the universe could be explained by human reason. It was shown that the earth is not
the center of the universe, but a small planet rotating around an average star; that
the universe is immense in space and in time; and that the motions of the planets
around the sun can be explained by the same simple laws that account for the
motion of physical objects on our planet. These and other discoveries greatly
expanded human knowledge, but the intellectual revolution these scientists brought
about was more fundamental: a commitment to the postulate that the universe
obeys immanent laws that account for natural phenomena. The workings of the
universe were brought into the realm of science: explanation through natural laws.
Physical phenomena could be accounted for whenever the causes were adequately
known.
 Darwin completed the Copernican revolution by drawing out for biology the
notion of nature as a lawful system of matter in motion. The adaptations and
diversity of organisms, the origin of novel and highly organized forms, even the
origin of humanity itself could now be explained by an orderly process of change
governed by natural laws.

The origin of organisms and their marvelous adaptations were, however,

either left unexplained or attributed to the design of an omniscient Creator. God had
created the birds and bees, the fish and corals, the trees in the forest, and best of
all, man. God had given us eyes so that we might see, and He had provided fish
with gills to breathe in water. Philosophers and theologians argued that the
functional design of organisms manifests the existence of an all-wise Creator.
Wherever there is design, there is a designer; the existence of a watch evinces the
existence of a watchmaker.

35

The English theologian William Paley in his Natural Theology (1802)

elaborated the argument-from-design as forceful demonstration of the existence of
the Creator. The functional design of the human eye, argued Paley, provided
conclusive evidence of an all-wise Creator. It would be absurd to suppose, he wrote,
that the human eye by mere chance "should have consisted, first, of a series of
transparent lenses ... secondly of a black cloth or canvas spread out behind these
lenses so as to receive the image formed by pencils of light transmitted through
them, and placed at the precise geometrical distance at which, and at which alone,
a distinct image could be formed ... thirdly of a large nerve communicating between
this membrane and the brain." The Bridgewater Treatises, published between 1833
and 1840, were written by eminent scientists and philosophers to set forth "the
Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God as manifested in the Creation." The
structure and mechanisms of man's hand were, for example, cited as
incontrovertible evidence that the hand had been designed by the same omniscient
Power that had created the world.

The advances of physical science had thus driven humanity's conception of

the universe to a split-personality state of affairs, which persisted well into the mid
nineteenth century. Scientific explanations, derived from natural laws, dominated the
world of nonliving matter, on the earth as well as in the heavens. Supernatural
explanations, depending on the unfathomable deeds of the Creator, accounted for
the origin and configuration of living creatures—the most diversified, complex, and
interesting realities of the world. It was Darwin's genius to resolve this conceptual
schizophrenia (Ayala, no date).
C. Freudian Revolution

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856, before the advent of telephones, radios,
automobiles, airplanes, and a host of other material and cultural changes that had
taken place by the time of his death in 1939. Freud saw the entirety of the first
World War–a war that destroyed the empire whose capital city was his home for
more than seventy years–and the beginning of the next. He began his career as
an ambitious but isolated neurologist; by the end of it, he described himself, not
inaccurately, as someone who had had as great an impact on humanity's
conception of itself as had Copernicus and Darwin.

Freud's most obvious impact was to change the way society thought about
and dealt with mental illness. Before psychoanalysis, which Freud invented,
mental illness was almost universally considered 'organic'; that is, it was thought
to come from some kind of deterioration or disease of the brain. Research on
treating mental illness was primarily concerned–at least theoretically–with
discovering exactly which kinds of changes in the brain led to insanity. Many
diseases did not manifest obvious signs of physical difference between healthy
and diseased

36

brains, but it was assumed that this was simply because the techniques for
finding the differences were not yet sufficient.

The conviction that physical diseases of the brain caused mental illness
meant that psychological causes–the kinds that Freud would insist on studying–
were ignored. It also meant that people drew a sharp dividing line between the
"insane" and the "sane." Insane people were those with physical diseases of the
brain. Sane people were those without diseased brains.

Freud changed all of this. Despite his background in physicalism (learned

during his stay in Ernst Brücke's laboratory), his theories explicitly rejected the
purely organic explanations of his predecessors. One of Freud's biggest
influences during his early days as a neurologist was Jean-Martin Charcot, the
famous French psychiatrist. Charcot claimed that hysteria had primarily organic
causes, and that it had a regular, comprehensible pattern of symptoms. Freud
agreed with Charcot on the latter point, but he disagreed entirely on the former.
In essence, Freud claimed that neurotic people had working hardware, but faulty
software. Earlier psychiatrists like Charcot, in contrast, had claimed that the
problems were entirely in the hardware. As psychoanalysis became increasingly
popular, psychology and psychiatry turned away from the search for organic
causes and toward the search for inner psychic conflicts and early childhood
traumas. As a consequence, the line between sane and insane was blurred:
 everyone, according to Freud, had an Oedipal crisis, and everyone could
potentially become mentally ill.

Psychoanalysis has had an enormous impact on the practice of psychiatry,

particularly within the United States, but today it is regarded by most sources–
medical, academic, governmental, and others–as almost entirely incorrect in its
conception of the mind. This judgment is based on the crucial test of
psychoanalysis: whether or not it really helps patients with behavioral or
psychological problems. The consensus is that is does not. Psychoanalysis in its
many varieties appears to have little or no efficacy in treating mental illness. In
contrast, psychopharmacology and cognitive- behavioral therapies (therapies that
simply try to change what the patient thinks and does rather than analyzing the
causes of the behavior), while far from perfect, do appear to help.

If this is true–and we have a great deal of evidence that it is–why is Freud

still so important? Why do we generally speak of him as a great figure in Western
thought, instead of as a strange and misguided figure of turn-of-the- century
Europe?

There are at least two reasons. The first is purely practical: psychoanalysis
has enormous historical significance. Mental illness affects an large proportion of
the population, either directly or indirectly, so any curative scheme as widely
accepted as was Freud's is important to our history in general. The second, more
important, reason is that Freud gave people a new way of thinking about why they
acted the way they did. He created a whole new way of interpreting behaviors:
one

37

could now claim that a person had motives, desires, and beliefs–all buried in the
unconscious–which they knew nothing about but which nonetheless directly
controlled and motivated their conscious thought and behavior. This hypothesis,
derived from but independent of Freud's psychiatric work, was the truly radical
part of his system of thought.

D. Scientific Revolution in Mesoamerica

Meso-America is the region from Mexico to Guatemala, Belize and parts of

Honduras and El Salvador. There were no major ancient civilization that
developed in North America. The Mesoamerican civilization were isolated from
the accumulated scientific knowledge of Africa, Asia and Europe. They were
confronted with much harder conditions than the ancient civilizations of the Indus
valley, Mesopotamia, and Egypt which developed in parallel with each other and
established contacts between each other at a very early stage. This exchange of
knowledge between these ancient civilizations was critical in the development of
their scientific knowledge. Because of this isolation, Mesoamerican civilization
 developed on their own and became much more self-reliant.

The most advanced Mesoamerican civilization was the Maya civilization that
was well on its way to develop true science. They knew how to make paper and
had pictorial script called Maya hieroglyphs that allowed them to record all
knowledge on long strips of paper folded harmonica-style into books. One of the
three books recovered called The Dresden Codex contains predictions of solar
eclipses for centuries and a table of predicted positions of Venus. Unlike the
European scientists who used astronomical instruments like telescopes, the Maya
made predictions by aligning stars with two objects that were separated by a large
distance, a technique that achieved great accuracy of angular measurement. As a
result, the Maya developed the most accurate calendar ever designed.

The Aztec followed the same road. They kept their own script and
languages but assimilated all they could learn from Maya society. Their
manuscripts describe how the Maya performed their astronomical observations.

Several outstanding achievements can be reported in the area of technology

and invention. The manufacture of rubber was one of the earliest inventions,
documented by the use of a rubber ball in the ball game tlachtli, a game played by
Meso-American civilizations from earliest times. In architecture the Maya were the
first to use pitched ceilings in their buildings after the invention of the corbelled
vault. Aztec city builders also understood the need for public sanitation; public
latrines were found along all highways, and to prevent pollution of Lake Texcoco
canoes transported the sewage from Tenochtitlán to the mainland every morning.
(von Hagen, 1957)

American people were gifted horticulturalists and cultivated crop plants from
the earliest times. Among the plants that originated in Meso-America are corn

38

(maize), papaya, avocado and cocoa. Maize is the only cultivated plant that was
developed so early in human history that its wild ancestor is no longer known. It
can, however, still be crossed with two other plants found only on the Yucatan
Peninsula.

Finally, several sculptures found at Meso-American sites in 1975, 1979 and

1983 and dating back to 2000 - 1500 BC have clear magnetic properties. In some
of these sculptures the north and south poles are in most conspicuous positions,
for example at the snout and at the back of the head of a frog or turtle. Another
magnetic object found in 1966 was shaped as if it was to be used to indicate
direction. These finds strongly suggest that the early Meso-American civilizations
knew about and used magnetism. (Malmström, 1976, 1979)

E. Asian Scientific Revolution

 Aside from China, there were other Asian countries that contributed to the
development of science and technology in the world, although it varied depending
on country and time, specially in the present times. Currently, Japan is probably
the most notable country in Asia in terms of scientific and technological
achievement, particularly in terms of its electronics and automobile products.
Other countries are also notable in other scientific fields such as chemical and
physical achievements.
The general conception is that many of the cutting-edge technological
developments, and to a lesser extent scientific advancements, emanate from
Asia. For instance, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China together produce a
staggering 90% of the world’s digital gadgets. Aside from the region’s hardware
dominance, nations across Asia are becoming increasingly important to the global
supply of digital content and services, something which will only increase as the
continent develops over the coming decades.
South Korea’s cultural popularity around the world has caused a number of
startup’s to emerge working within the digital and technology sectors, including
website viki.com.
Taiwan is following a similar path to Japan meanwhile, moving away from
hardware production, instead turning to software and content development.
Together, the points raised throughout this article proves Asia is truly a crucible of
innovative technological development; a continent that will play an incredibly
important role in the evolution of our digital age.

F. Scientific Revolution in Middle East

During the 3,000 years of urbanized life in Mesopotamia and Egypt tremendous
strides were made in various branches of science and technology. The greatest
advances were made in Mesopotamia—very possibly because of its constant shift of
population and openness to foreign influence, in contrast to the relative isolation of
Egypt and the consequent stability of its population. The Egyptians excelled in such

39

applied sciences as medicine, engineering, and surveying; in Mesopotamia greater

progress was made in astronomy and mathematics. The development of astronomy
seems to have been greatly accelerated by that of astrology, which took the lead
among the quasi-sciences involved in divination. The Egyptians remained far behind
the Babylonians in developing astronomy, while Babylonian medicine, because of its
chiefly magical character, was less advanced than that of Egypt. In engineering and
architecture Egyptians took an early lead, owing largely to the stress they laid on the
construction of such elaborate monuments as vast pyramids and temples of granite
and sandstone. On the other hand, the Babylonians led in the development of such
practical arts as irrigation (Albright, 2014).
 Both sciences and pseudosciences spread from Egypt and Mesopotamia to
Phoenicia and Anatolia. The Phoenicians in particular transmitted much of this
knowledge to the various lands of the Mediterranean, especially to the Greeks. The
direction taken by these influences can be followed from Egypt to Syria, Phoenicia,
and Cyprus, thanks to a combination of excavated art forms that prove the direction
of movement, as well as to Greek tradition, which lays great stress on what the early
Greek philosophers learned from Egypt. Mesopotamian influence can be traced
especially through the partial borrowing of Babylonian science and divination by the
Hittites and later by the transmission of information through Phoenicia. The
Egyptians and Mesopotamians wrote no theoretical treatises; information had to be
transmitted piecemeal through personal contacts.

Of all the accomplishments of the ancient Middle East, the invention of the
alphabet is probably the greatest. While pre-alphabetic systems of writing in the Old
World became steadily more phonetic, they were still exceedingly cumbersome, and
the syllabic systems that gradually replaced them remained complex and difficult. In
the early Hyksos period (17th century BC) the Northwestern Semites living in Egypt
adapted hieroglyphic characters—in at least two slightly differing forms of letters—to
their own purposes. Thus was developed the earliest known purely consonantal
alphabet, imitated in northern Syria, with the addition of two letters to designate
vowels used with the glottal catch.

This alphabet spread rapidly and was in quite common use among the
Northwestern Semites (Canaanites, Hebrews, Aramaeans, and especially the
Phoenicians) soon after its invention. By the 9th century BC the Phoenicians were
using it in the western Mediterranean, and the Greeks and Phrygians adopted it in
the 8th. The alphabet contributed vastly to the Greek cultural and literary revolution
in the immediately following period. From the Greeks it was transmitted to other
Western peoples. Since language must always remain the chief mode of
communication for people, its union with hearing and vision in a uniquely simple
phonetic structure has probably revolutionized civilization more than any other
invention in history.

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G. Scientific Revolution in Africa

The history of the sciences in Africa is rich and diverse. The applied sciences of
agronomy, metallurgy, engineering and textile production, as well as medicine,
dominated the field of activity across Africa. So advanced was the culture of farming
within West Africa, that ‘New World‘ agricultural growth was spawned by the use of
captives from these African societies that had already made enormous strides in the
field of agronomy. In her work Black Rice, Judith Carnoy demonstrates the legacy of
enslaved Africans to the Americas in the sphere of rice cultivation. We know also
that a variety of African plants were adopted in Asia, including coffee, the oil palm,
fonio or acha (digitaria exilis), African rice (oryza glabberima), and sorghum
(sorghum bicolor). Plants, whether in terms of legumes, grain, vegetables, tubers,
or, wild or cultivated fruits, also had medicinal implications for Africans and were
used as anesthetics or pain killers, analgesics for the control of fever, antidotes to
counter poisons, and anthelmints aimed at deworming. They were used also in
cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal, and dermatological contexts. Some of these such
as hoodia gordonii and combrettum caffrum are being integrated within
contemporary pharmaceutical systems (Emeagwali, n.d.).

Africa’s areas of scientific investigation include the fields of astronomy, physics,

and mathematics. Laird Scranton, making use of the extensive collections of Marcel
Griaule, has deepened our understanding of Malian cosmological myths and their
perceptions of the structure of matter and the physical world. Dogon knowledge
systems have also been explored in terms of their perceptions on astronomy. Dogon
propositions about Sirius B have been discussed by Charles Finch in The Star of
Deep Beginnings. The solar calendar that we use today evolved from the Egyptian
calendar of twelve months, calibrated according to the day on which the star Sirius
rose on the horizon with the Sun. Scranton suggests major interconnections
between the thought of the ancient Egyptians and that of the Malians of West Africa.

In the field of Mathematics, Nubian builders calculated the volumes of masonry

and building materials, as well as the slopes of pyramids, for construction purposes.
Bianchi points to a Nubian engraving at Meroe, in ancient Sudan, dated to the first
century B.C.E., which reflects “a sophisticated understanding of mathematics.”
Included in the engraving were several lines, inclined at a 72-degree angle, running
diagonally from the base of a pyramid. Bianchi suggests that the Nubian King
Amanikhabale of the first century BCE was the owner of that pyramid. Interestingly,
the Nubians of Meroe, who constructed more pyramids than the Egyptians, built
steep, flat-topped pyramids.

In the field of medicine, common patterns and trends emerged across the
continent. These included scientifically proven methods, as well as techniques and
strategies which were culturally specific and psychologically significant. Among the
common principles and procedures were hydrotherapy, heat therapy, spinal
manipulation, quarantine, bone-setting and surgery. Incantations and other
psychotherapeutic devices sometimes accompanied other techniques. The

41

knowledge of specific medicinal plants was quite extensive in some kingdoms,

empires, and city states such as Aksum, and Borgu (in Hausaland). The latter
continues to be well known for orthopedics (bone-setting), as is the case of Funtua
in Northern Nigeria. Many traditional techniques are still utilized in some areas.
Others have undergone change over time, have been revived in more recent
periods, or have fallen into oblivion.

Various types of metal products have been used over time by Africans, ranging
from gold, tin, silver, bronze, brass, and iron/steel. The Sudanic empires of West
Africa emerged in the context of various commercial routes and activities involving
the gold trade. In the North and East, Ethiopia and Sudan were the major suppliers
of gold, with Egypt a major importer. In Southern Africa, the kingdom of Monomotapa
(Munhumutapa) reigned supreme as a major gold producer. In the various spheres
of metal production, specific techniques and scientific principles included: excavation
and ore identification; separation of ore from non-ore bearing rock; smelting by the
use of bellows and heated furnaces; and smithing and further refinement.
The use of multishaft and open-shaft systems facilitated circulation of air in
intense heating processes, while the bellows principle produced strong currents of
air in a chamber expanded to draw in or expel air through a valve. The various
metal products served a wide range of purposes, including: armor (as in some
northern Nigerian city-states), jewelry (of gold, silver, iron, copper and brass),
cooking utensils, cloth dyeing, sculpture, and agricultural tools. The technical
know-how and expertise of blacksmiths helped to enhance their status, although
they were also often associated with supernatural and psychic powers, as well.

In various parts of ancient, medieval, and contemporary Africa, building

constructions of various dimensions, shapes, and types emerged, reflecting various
concepts, techniques, raw material preferences, and decorative principles. Builders
integrated the concepts of the arch, the dome, and columns and aisles in their
constructions. The underground vaults and passages, as well as the rock-hewn
churches, of Axum are matched in Nubia and Egypt with pyramids of various
dimensions. In the Sahelian region, adobe, or dried clay, was preferred in the
context of moulded contours, at times integrated with overall moulded sculpture.
Permanent scaffolding made of protruding planks characterized the Malian region.
The principle of evaporative cooling was integrated into building design. Mats were
used as part of the decor and also to be saturated repeatedly in order to cool the
room.
Derelict ruins from walled cities—such as Kano, Zazzau, and other city-states of
Hausaland in the central Sudanic region of West Africa—complement structures
such as the rock-hewn and moulded churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia or the
Zimbabwe enclosures. The structures of ancient Nubia, as well as those of Egypt,
are parallel structures in the northeast.

42
H. Information Revolution

Information revolution is a period of change that describes current

economic, social and technological trends beyond the Industrial Revolution. The
information revolution was fueled by advances in semiconductor technology,
particularly the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) and
the integrated circuit (IC) chip, leading to the Information Age in the early 21 st
century (Lukasiak, 2010; Orton, 2009).

Information revolution might prove as significant to the lives of people.

Computer technology is at the root of this change, and continuing advancements
in that technology seem to ensure that this revolution would touch the lives of
people. Computers are unique machines; they help to extend the brain power.
Computerized robots have been replacing blue-collar workers; they might soon be
replacing white collar workers as well. Computers are merely devices that follow
sets of instructions called computer programs, or software, that have been written
by people called computer programmers. Computers offer many benefits, but
there are also many dangers. They could help others invade one's privacy or
wage war. They might turn one into button pusher and cause massive
unemployment. User friendly systems can be easily used by untrained people.
The key development that made personal computers possible was the invention
of the microprocessor chip at Intel in 1971.

The information revolution led us to the age of the internet, where optical
communication networks play a key role in delivering massive amounts of data.
The world has experienced phenomenal network growth during the last decade,
and further growth is imminent. The internet will continue to expand due to user
population growth and internet penetration: previously inaccessible geographical
regions in Africa and Asia will come online. Network growth will only be
accelerated by improvements in integrated circuits. Transistor size has been
halved every two years since the middle of the last century. The new
internet-based global economy requires a worldwide network with high capacity
and availability, which is currently limited by submarine optical communication
cables.

New ideas keep coming from the information transport community. Since
the first edition of Undersea Fiber Communication Systems in 2002, the optical
fiber communication industry moved into the “coherent” era. We transport an
order of magnitude more bits than just five years ago. We encode information
into phase, polarization, and amplitude of electromagnetic waves. Michael
Faraday would be proud, knowing that we send over 10,000,000,000,000 bits
every second across the Atlantic Ocean in a single strand of fiber. We would
leave in awe Sir William Thomson (known as Lord Kelvin), who was the scientific
leader of an 1858 endeavor that built the first submarine cable with a
transmission speed of one word per minute. Sir Thomson and Cyrus Field, an
American businessman and telecommunications pioneer, would be surprised to
find out how many tools
 43

developed during their first transatlantic expedition are still in use today. At first
glance, the modern cable looks similar to the 1858 cable, which was copper
based with a gutta-percha (trans-poly isoprene) isolator. In modern day cables,
gutta percha has been replaced with polyethylene. We still use copper to power
submarine repeaters, and have added optical fibers during the last decade of the
last century.

The uniqueness of this engineering marvel is a combination of information

science, nonlinear optics, electrical engineering, material science, engineering
practices, project management, marine expertise, and high reliability standard.
Undersea fiber communication systems will continue to serve society.

Impact of Information Revolution

The truly revolutionary impact of the Information Revolution is just

beginning to be felt. But it is not "information" that fuels this impact. It is not
"artificial intelligence." It is not the effect of computers and data processing on
decision making, policymaking, or strategy. It is something that practically no one
foresaw or, indeed, even talked about ten or fifteen years ago: e-commerce—that
is, the explosive emergence of the Internet as a major, perhaps eventually the
major, worldwide distribution channel for goods, for services, and, surprisingly, for
managerial and professional jobs. This is profoundly changing economies,
markets, and industry structures; products and services and their flow; consumer
segmentation, consumer values, and consumer behavior; jobs and labor markets.
But the impact may be even greater on societies and politics and, above all, on
the way we see the world and ourselves in it.
At the same time, new and unexpected industries will no doubt emerge,
and fast. One is already here: biotechnology. And another: fish farming. Within
the next fifty years fish farming may change us from hunters and gatherers on
the seas into "marine pastoralists"—just as a similar innovation some 10,000
years ago changed our ancestors from hunters and gatherers on the land into
agriculturists and pastoralists.
It is likely that other new technologies will appear suddenly, leading to
major new industries. What they may be is impossible even to guess at. But it is
highly probable—indeed, nearly certain—that they will emerge, and fairly soon.
And it is nearly certain that few of them—and few industries based on them—will
come out of computer and information technology. Like biotechnology and fish
farming, each will emerge from its own unique and unexpected technology.
Of course, these are only predictions. But they are made on the
assumption that the Information Revolution will evolve as several earlier
technology-based "revolutions" have evolved over the past 500 years, since
Gutenberg's printing revolution, around 1455. In particular, the assumption is that
the Information
 Revolution will be like the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. And that is indeed exactly how the Information Revolution
has been during its first fifty years.

44

Activity: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Motivation:
Please refer to the following quote in answering the given questions below.

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of

giants.” - Sir Isaac Newton

1. What do you think Newton has seen?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

2. Who do you think Newton refers to as giants?

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

3. What do you think this quote tells you about Newton’s character?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

Pre-Activity Discussion
Scientists today build on the knowledge and discoveries made by others. It might
be that they continue and grow the work of the scientists who have mentored and
supervised them or that they build on prior discoveries – both recent and historical.

Tying in stories of science in history and scientific breakthroughs can offer

engaging opportunities for further exploration and learning. For example, the periodic
table that we know today was actually a result of numerous experiments and discoveries
that spanned for centuries starting from 1669 when the first scientific discovery of an
element was made by Hennig Brand. Over the next 200 years, a great deal of
knowledge about elements and compounds was gained. By the middle of the 19th
century, about 60 elements had been discovered. Scientists began to recognize
patterns in the properties of these elements and set about developing classification
schemes.

45

Scientists are constantly working on discovering new materials and further

investigating the properties of existing elements. The periodic table can be reviewed and
new elements can be added, but only added after rigorous scientific examination. The
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) verifies the additions of new
elements and at the end of 2015 the 7th period of the periodic table of elements was
completed with the addition of four new elements.

Activity Task:

The following timeline summarizes the development of the periodic table. Using
the brief history of the periodic table as an example and applying what you have learned
about intellectual revolutions, select any topic (can be an object or theory) and present
its historical evolution to its present day form. Identify the key persons who are
instrumental in its development and how each key person worked on the findings of
his/her predecessors in the field to further improve the work. Be creative in presenting
your timeline and in presenting your work.
 46

1862
Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois plotted
 1864
the atomic weights of elements on paper tape and
wound them, spiral like, around a cylinder. He called

his model the telluric helix or screw.

English chemist John

Newlands proposed
his Law of octaves based on the
periodic
similarity
every
seventh element.

1868
Lothar Meyer compiled a periodic table based on

1869
regular repeating pattern of physical property such
as molar volume. Once again the elements were

arranged in order of increasing atomic weights.

Dmitri Mendeleev produced a periodic

table
based on atomic weights but
arranged
“periodically”. Elements with
similar
properties appeared under each other. Gaps

1894
were left for yet to be discovered

elements.

William Ramsay discovered the noble

gases
and realized that they represented a new
group
in the periodic table. The noble gases

1913
added
further proof to the accuracy of Mendeleev’s

table.

Henry Moseley determined the atomic

number
of each of the known elements. He realized
that
arranging the elements in order of
increasing
atomic number rather than atomic weight gave
 1944
Glenn Seaborg proposed
published his version of the table in 1945. The
lanthanide and actinide series form the two rows
under the periodic table of elements.
a better fit within the “periodic table”.
an ‘actinide hypothesis’ and

47

Chapter 3
Science, Technology and Nation Building

Introduction

This section presents the policies of the government regarding science and
technology, how it is being implemented through its various departments and agencies,
and its role in nation building. It also includes a list of Filipino inventors and their
inventions.

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss the role of science and technology in Philippine nation building. 2.
Evaluate government policies on science and technology in terms of their
contributions to nation building.
3. Identify actual science and technology government policies and appraise their
impact on the development of the Filipino nation.

A. The Philippine Government Science and Technology Agenda

Scientists and technologists are the backbone of an industrialized nation that

propels socioeconomic gain and national progress. They are the key players and
lifeblood of research and innovation and plays an important role in the industry and
manufacturing sector. As such, it can be said that scientists and technologists are
essential players in nation building.

In the Philippines, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is

tasked to oversee and manage national technology development and acquisition,
undertake technological and scientific research and promote public consciousness
of science and technology. DOST is responsible for formulating and adopting a
comprehensive National Science and Technology plan for the Philippines and
subsequently, to monitor and coordinate its funding and implementation. It
undertakes policy research,
technology assessment, feasibility and technical studies, and maintains a national
information system and databank on science and technology.

In 2017, DOST launched the Science for the People thru Administrative
Order No. 003 s. 2017. This is in response to the government’s call to address
inequity in developments within and among countries and is aligned with the national
goals and plans. It aims to make science and technology more relevant to the
conditions, needs and opportunities for contributing to regional development while
keeping abreast with the trends and development in the country and in the world.
Likewise, the program intends to maximize the use of science, enhance innovation
and the creative capacity of the Filipinos towards the achievement of inclusive and
sustainable growth.

48

Stipulated in the strategic plan are the seven outcomes that the agency strives
to achieve. These are as follows:

1. Innovation and stimulus

2. Technology and adoption promoted and accelerated
3. Critical mass of globally competitive STI human resources developed
4. Productivity and efficiency of communities and the production sector,
particularly MSMEs improved
5. Resiliency to disaster risks and climate change ensured
6. Inequality in STI capacities and opportunities reduced
7. Effective STI governance achieved

The strategies to attain these outcomes are embodied in the DOST Eleven
Point Agenda as follows:

1. Pursue R&D to address pressing national problems.

2. Conduct R&D to enhance productivity and improve management of
resources.
3. Engage in R&D to generate and apply new knowledge and technologies
across sectors.
4. Strengthen and utilize regional R&D capabilities.
5. Maximize utilization of R&D results through technology transfer and
commercialization.
6. Develop STI human resources and build a strong STI culture.
7. Upgrade STI facilities and capacities to advance R&D activities and expand
S&T services.
 8. Expand STI assistance to communities and the production sector,
particularly MSMEs.
9. Provide STI-based solutions for disaster risks and climate change
adaptation and mitigation.
10. Strengthen industry-academe-government and international STI
collaboration.
11. Enhance effectiveness of STI governance.

Agenda 1 highlights the latest advancements in research and development

geared towards the shared goal of improved nutrition and health for all. Focused on
health technology development, drug discovery and development remains to be the
high-impact and big ticket program supported by the Department in the area of health.
Central to this R&D program is the study of endemic resources, partnered with
documentation of traditional knowledge and practices in health, that could eventually
lead to decreased cost of medicines and health interventions for diseases that affect
the quality of lives of many Filipinos.

Agenda 2 presents how R&D can be utilized to make key traditional industries
steadfast and competitive through technological innovations that can address gaps in
productivity and increase production yield. Enhancing the capacity of marginalized

49

sub-sectors and people groups to use better and new technologies can expand their
access to participate in economic activities and progress. The primary industries that
will benefit from the featured major R&D programs include the agriculture, specifically
coconut and rice production, non-wood forest products, i.e., bamboo processing and
utilization, and natural textile among others.

Agenda 3 engages R&D in emerging scientific and technological platforms

which lay the inroads to the development of new products, services, and industries.
Promising new technologies may potentially disrupt and change the way things are
done. Recognizing this, the Department anticipates impact of new technologies in
existing industries in the country by supporting local capability programs in the areas
of artificial intelligence for new industry development and supporting research in
nanotechnology for new materials development.

Agenda 4 focuses in strengthening institutional capacity to undertake research

and development and contribute to regional development. Utilizing local researchers
equalize opportunities in generating new knowledge and technologies suited for the
specific need of the region. The Department partners with Higher Education
Institutions in the regions in establishing niche R&D centers which may also serve as
hubs for developing R&D capability of adjacent localities.

Agenda 5 includes mechanisms to encourage technology transfer and avenues

where R&D results are promoted in the bid to maximize its utilization. The Department
 provided support in bringing R&D results to its final stage of development up to
commercialization.

Agenda 6 aims to build a critical mass of competitive researchers, scientists,

and engineers (RSEs) and promoting a culture of STI. Towards this goal, the
Department continues to provide scholarship programs to scale up the number of
RSEs.

Agenda 7 features various S&T facilities that offer technical services for
carrying out research and development, as well as addressing the needs of the
industry in terms of quality assurance, adherence to standards, product development,
and innovation. The electronics, semi-conductor, automotive parts, gear assembly
manufacturing, agriculture produce, and food manufacturing industries can benefit
from the various S&T facilities and technical services.

Agenda 8 focuses on S&T assistance provided to upgrade the technological

capabilities and improve the productivity and efficiency of Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSMEs). The Department has continued to provide technological
interventions such as process and system improvement, technical consultancy,
packaging and labelling, training, testing and calibration, and product development to
empower MSMEs to innovate, move up the technology scale and become more
competitive.

50

Agenda 9 highlights the role of the Department in building a disaster-resilient

community through the provision of accurate and timely information. Specifically,
progress was made by establishing and upgrading observation and monitoring
systems, efforts in hazard and risk assessment, and researches for disaster risk
management, as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Agenda 10 focuses on the linkages and networks being pursued by the

Department in terms of S&T collaboration. In 2017, the Department took part in 24
bilateral engagements and participated in a number of activities which involved 14
international organizations.

Agenda 11 (Enhance effectiveness of STI governance) provides the policy

framework that governs the implementation of the programs, projects and activities of
the Department in contribution to national development and progress. Taking off from
the National 0+10 Socioeconomic Agenda and Philippine Development Plan, the
Department crafted the Science for the People 11-point Agenda, Harmonized R&D
Agenda, and Regional Offices Strategy Map.

In Focus: Batangas State University KIST Park

 Batangas State University made history as it officially launched the country’s first
Knowledge, Innovation and Science Technology (KIST) Park on July 20, 2020. This
milestone placed Batangas State University at the forefront of national development.
BatStateU KIST Park was designated as a Special Economic Zone under Presidential
Proclamation No. 947, s. 2020. The theme of the launching event was “Towards a
New Frontier of Knowledge-building and Innovation in Science and Technology.”

BatStateU headed by Dr. Tirso A. Ronquillo became a key partner of the

government in fostering industry-academe linkages, knowledge and technology
transfer, and promoting the commercialization of innovations. The KIST Park will
serve as a catalyst for industrial productivity and increased economic growth in
CaLaBaRZon. This manifestation of the strong collaboration between government,
industry and academe is central to inclusive innovation strategy.

BatStateU KIST Park is now open and spearheads a long-term vision for “state
universities and colleges in the country to expand their programs for industry,
academe, market synergy, technopreneurship, [innovation-based] business
incubation and acceleration, and knowledge co-creation in science and technology.”
(http://batstateukistpark.com.ph/#/main/home)

Question: Which of the 11-point Agenda relates to the launching and operation of
BatStateU KIST Park? Expound your answer.

51

B. Major Development Programs and Personalities in Science and

Technology in the Philippines

Major Development Programs in Science and Technology

The Science for Change Program (S4CP) was created by the Department of
Science and Technology (DOST) to accelerate STI in the country in order to keep up
with the developments in our time wherein technology and innovation are game
changers. Through the Science for Change Program (S4CP), the DOST can
significantly accelerate STI in the country and create a massive

S4CP focuses on Accelerated R&D Program for Capacity Building of R&D

Institutions and Industrial Competitiveness which is composed of four (4) programs
namely: (1) Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D (NICER) Program, (2) R&D
Leadership (RDLead) Program, (3) Collaborative R&D to Leverage PH Economy
(CRADLE) for RDIs and Industry Program, (4) Business Innovation through S&T (BIST)
for Industry Program.

The NICER Program capacitates Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the

regions to make significant improvement in regional research by integrating its
development needs with the existing R&D capabilities and resources. It provides
institutional grants for HEIs in the regions for R&D capacity building to improve their S&T
infrastructure. The NICER Program was established in consultation with the academe
and industry; and endorsed by the Regional Development Council (RDC). Hence, a
NICER is a unique center for collaborative R&D to address specific S&T needs of local
communities and industries, thereby accelerating regional development. It caters to the
specific needs of the Regions, which include upgrading, development, and acquisition of
R&D equipment to undertake collaborative R&D activities. Currently, there are 18
existing NICERs across 14 regions for a total funding of P641M.

The R&D Leadership Program complements the establishment of R&D Centers

thru the NICER Program. RDLead provides the mechanism to bring in experts and
highly skilled professionals with strong leadership, management and innovative
policy-making proficiencies to be in charge of strengthening the research capabilities of
the HEIs, National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Research Development
Institutions (RDIs) in the regions. Together, the RDLead and NICER Programs will
capacitate HEIs to help improve and hasten the use of research results that will
contribute to the socio-economic development of the country and help address pressing
challenges. The NRCP is the implementing agency for this program.

The Collaborative Research and Development to Leverage Philippine Economy

(CRADLE) Program is specifically designed to foster collaboration between academe
and local companies to improve competitiveness and catalyze innovation. It aims to
improve the country’s innovation ecosystem by facilitating the smooth transition of new
technologies from universities and research and development institutes (RDI) to
industries - from lab to market. The framework of CRADLE is a trihelix partnership

52

between the government, the industry and the academe wherein the government
finances the collaboration of the private company and the partner university or RDI. The
Program aims to address a problem of a Filipino company using R&D to develop
innovative solutions. To date, the DOST has already provided almost Php 125 M of
funding to 29 academe-industry collaborations all over the country.

The Business Innovation through S&T (BIST) for Industry Program aims to level
up the innovation capacity of the Philippine Industrial Sector through R&D by helping
private companies and industries acquire novel and strategic technologies, such as state
of-the-art equipment and machinery, technology licenses and patent rights among
others. The program will cover up to 70% of the total eligible cost of the needed
technology at zero percent interest. To date, the BIST Program has approved one
project from an herbal company, Herbanext Laboratories Inc., providing a total financial
assistance of Php11.7M.

A Steering committee for CRADLE and BIST Programs was created through the
DOST Special Order No. 0276 which was approved on 02 April 2018. The Steering
Committee is headed by Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, Undersecretary for R&D, and
the members include the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Federation of
Philippine Industries (FPI), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI),
Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and
Development (PCAARRD), Philippine Council for Health Research and Development
(PCHRD) and Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology
Research and Development (PCIEERD)

The committee performs the following functions: (1) Review/formulate policies

relating to the implementation of CRADLE and BIST Program; (2) Provide advice and
guidance in the management and administration of the projects; and (3) Other functions
necessary for the successful implementation of CRADLE and BIST Programs. Since the
implementation of the S4CP in 2017, the DOST has spent a total of Php 407,585,946.60
to the four programs.

53

Personalities in Science and Technology in the Philippines

Aisa Mijeno

To light up the rest

of the
Philippines sustainably
was the vision of
Filipina scientist Aisa
Mijeno when she
made the Sustainable Alternative Lighting
(SALt) lamp. The product concept was
formed after living with the Butbut tribe for
weeks relying only on kerosene lamps
and moonlight to do evening chores. Her
mission and advocacy is to address the
light inequality gap and end the use of
combustion based light sources
(kerosene lamps and candles) for the 16
Million Filipinos and 1.4 Billion people https://www.asianscientist.com/2015/05/features
across the world. /asias-rising-scientists-aisa-mijeno/

The SALt Lamp is an environment-friendly and sustainable alternative light

source that runs on saltwater, making it suitable to those who live in coastal areas. It
can also function well in remote barrios. With just two table spoons of salt and one glass
of tap water, this ecologically designed lamp can run for eight hours.

The idea behind the SALt lamp is the chemical conversion of energy. It utilizes
the scientific process behind the Galvanic cell, but instead of electrolytes, the SALt lamp
uses saline solution, making it harmless and non-toxic. Compared with kerosene lamp,
the SALt lamp is also a lot safer since it does not have components and compounds
that may spark fire. Moreover, it does not emit toxic gases and leaves minimal carbon
footprint.
Because of its inspiring vision and ground-breaking innovation, the SALt lamp has
received various awards and recognition from organizations in the Philippines,
Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. SALt have won several awards including KOTRA
Top 5 Best Global Startup at Startup Nations Summit 2014, People's Choice at Startup
Nations Summit 2014 and recognized by the ASEAN Corporate Sustainability Summit
and Awards 2015 giving them the SME Sustainability Commitment Category.

One of Mijano’s career highlights was when she was invited as an APEC CEO
Summit panel member together with ex-President Barack Obama and Alibaba CEO
Jack Ma. Looking forward, she wishes to distribute more lanterns to communities
across the Philippines and possibly throughout South East Asia.

54

Ramon C. Barba
 He is a Filipino scientist, inventor and
horticulturist who is known for his successful
experiment on the inducement of flowering of
mango trees by spraying them with ethrel and
potassium nitrate. He developed a process
that caused the flowering and fruiting of
mango trees three times a year, instead on
once a year, so dramatically improving yields.
Since his discovery, the mango industry in the
Philippines expanded. Apart from the mango
producers themselves, other business
sectors such as the producers of the pest
all the other smaller groups of workers
related to mango industry have benefitted
https://joinpase.weebly.com/pases-of from his invention. This technology has
success/ramon-cabanos-barba also been
control chemicals, harvesters, sellers, and
successfully applied on other fruit trees including cashew.

Barba also developed a tissue culture procedure for the banana plant and sugar
cane which enabled production of large quantities of planting materials that were robust
and disease-free. With his research team, Barba devised micro propagation protocols
for more than 40 important species of fruit crops, ornamental plants, plantation crops,
aquarium plants, and forest trees. In 2013, Ramon C. Barba was conferred the rank and
title of National Scientist in the Philippines for his distinguished achievements in the field
of plant physiology.

Fe V. del Mundo
She is known as the Mother
of Philippine
Pediatrics, a very great scientist and
a symbol of
female empowerment in medicine,
both in the
Philippines and abroad. The first
Asian woman
admitted into Harvard, she pursued
graduate
degrees in America after receiving
her medical
degree from the University of the Philippines. Del
Mundo pioneered numerous inventions throughout
her more than 70-year medical career. She
revolutionized Philippine medicine, making major
breakthroughs in immunization and in the
treatment of jaundice, and providing healthcare to
thousands of poor families. She is credited Her methods, like
with studies that led to the invention of the
incubator and a jaundice relieving device.
 files/fe-del-mundo-25104.php

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/pro

the BRAT diet for curing diarrhea, have spread throughout the world and saved millions.
Del Mundo’s field of natural science and the field of public health was something she
was

55

actively involved in. When she was not busy treating and taking care of children, she did
some pioneering work on infectious diseases in Philippine communities and authored
the Textbook of Pediatrics, as well as hundreds of articles and medical reports on
diseases such as dengue, polio and measles.
During her lifetime, del Mundo won numerous awards and recognition for her
outstanding work. Among these was the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service,
which she received in 1977. She became the Philippines’ first female National Scientist
in 1980, in recognition of her work in Pediatrics. The rank of National Scientist is
awarded to science practitioners with “distinguished individual or collaborative
achievement in science and technology.” In 2010, del Mundo was awarded the Order of
Lakandula, rank of Bayani, as a Filipina who lived a life “worthy of emulation.”
Posthumously, she was conferred the Grand Collar of the Order of the Golden Heart
Award in 2011, by President Benigno Aquino III.

Maria Y. Orosa
Advances in modern Filipino
food
technology owe a great deal to the
creative
researches and salutary
inventiveness of a
woman chemist and pharmacist from
Batangas – Maria Y. Orosa. The now
commercially available thirst
quencher, the
calamansi juice, is just one of the
popular
native food products in whose
preparation and
preservation she had a hand. She produced
the “calamansi nip,” the desiccated and
powdered form of the fruit which could be
made into juice. The most notable of her food
inventions, is “Soyalac,” a powdered
preparation of soya-beans, which helped save
the lives of thousands of Filipinos, Americans, and other nationals who
ever held prisoners in different orosa-profile
Japanese concentration camps

https://food52.com/blog/24700-maria

during World War II. It became known to them as the “magic food.” She is also credited
with the making of the banana ketchup; wines from native fruits, like casuy and guava;
vinegar from pineapples; banana starch; soyamilk; banana flour; cassava flour; jelly
from guava, santol, mango, and other fruits, as well as the invention of rice cookies,
known as ricebran or darak, which is effective in the treatment of patients with beri-beri.
Aside from making food preparations, Miss Orosa taught Filipinos how to preserve such
native delicacies as the adobo, dinuguan, kilawen and escabeche. Together with her
associates in the Bureau of Plant Industry, she invented “Oroval” and “Clarosa.”
In 1923, she helped organize the food preservation division under the Bureau of
Science. On June 3, 1927, she became the acting division head. Orosa also tried her
hand in improving household wares. She invented the “Orosa Palayok Oven” for cooking
various dishes. In 1928, the government, recognizing her dynamism and strong
leadership, sent her to various countries as a state scholar to specialize in food

56

processing and canning. To perpetuate her memory, the government has named after
her a street stretching from T.M. Kalaw to Padre Faura in Ermita, Manila, as well as a
building in the Bureau of Plants and Industry. She was one of the 19 scientists who were
conferred awards on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Institute of Science and
Technology. On November 29, 1983, the National Historical Institute installed a marker
in her honor at the Bureau of Plant Industry in San Andres, Manila.

Angel Alcala
He is a Filipino
scientist whose
biological contributions to
the
environment and
ecosystems have made
him a hero for natural
sciences. During his
30 years of experience as
a biologist,
Alcala made major
contributions to
marine biology research efforts in the
Philippines and authored over 160
scientific papers as well as books. Alcala
was the first Filipino scientist to engage in
comprehensive studies concerning
Philippine reptiles and amphibians and
minor studies on mammals and birds.
From the 400 already known species of
reptiles and amphibians, 50 more species
were identified due to his efforts. Because http://heroes.aseanbiodiversity.org/2017/09/
of his work, conservation programs in the 07/asean-biodiversity-hero-dr-angel-c
Philippines are now well established. alcala-philippines/

Alcala also made a highly valuable and groundbreaking contribution to marine

ecosystems when he established the first artificial reef around the coastline of the
Philippines, greatly boosting the ecosystem's health and viability.
. In 1994, he was given the Field Museum Founders’ Council Award of Merit for
contributions to environmental biology. He is a recipient of the Magsaysay Award for
Public Service. In September 2011 he received the Gregorio Y. Zara Award for Basic
Science from the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Science Inc. In 2014, he
was proclaimed National Scientist by President Benigno S. Aquino III through
Presidential Decree 782 on June 6, 2014.

57

Activity: Small Group Activity

Work with your three (3) classmates and discuss your answers to the following
questions.
1. What are the best and the most useful inventions in the 20th and 21st centuries?

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2. What do you think is the worst invention of mankind?
 ________________________________________________________________
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3. What kinds of things do inventors need to think about before they try to build
something? Why?
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4. Can you name some inventions you are looking forward to?
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5. What would you invent if you are a scientist?

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.
C. Science Education in the Philippines
The role and goal of science in education should always be the same. Since
science is considered both knowledge and method, operating independent of time and
place, the benefits of science anywhere can only be the same. The value of science lies
not only in the knowledge that it imparts and bequeaths to the learner but also in its

58

methods and techniques that inculcate in the learner’s scientific habits, skills, and
attitudes. Science, even as it is considered a body of knowledge, it is also taken as
methodology. It has given a tangible method and system to what would otherwise be by
chance and accident. From the utilization of scientific methods and techniques, one is
able to very possibly explain the past and predict what the future holds.
The general benefits of science have greatly challenged education of the
Philippines. While the country might have been a beneficiary of the methods of science
even before the program of formal education, it was during the American period that
brought about a most significant and essential change in the nature of education. There
has been a corresponding increase in knowledge and understanding of natural and
social phenomena covered by all the disciplines of science available now. It is this
education that has been largely credited for the development of science in the
Philippines.

Early Efforts to Improve Science Education

As early as the decade of the 1950s, scientists were concerned with the state of
science education in the schools. Leading scientists made Philippine authorities aware
that the teaching of science from grade school level to college levels in both public and
private schools was very inadequate. The inadequacies and weaknesses of science
teaching were recognized as those relating to undertrained teachers, the inadequate
science curriculum in schools and colleges, the minimum allotted to science, the lack of
books, equipment and teaching aids. In 1957, the Philippine government made the
teaching of science compulsory in all elementary and secondary schools. A National
Committee for Science Education was set up in 1958 to formulate objectives for the
teaching of science education at all levels and to recommend steps that would upgrade
the teaching of science. The committee identified the areas to which improvement efforts
were needed such as integration of science with classroom instruction, acquisition of
more science equipment and tools, coordination of efforts with other agencies,
negotiations for a science institute for teachers, national science talent search and
fellowships, higher salaries of science and mathematics teachers and promotion of
science teachers competence.

The BSCS Adaptation Project

In1959, biological sciences curriculum study (BSCS) project was launched by

American Institute of Biological Science, university of Colorado in order to improve
biology education in secondary schools. A steering committee of biological scientists,
teachers and educators was constituted. The project was financed by National Science
Foundation, USA.
The BSCS project was started to design high school biology course with the
objectives to: provide recent and latest knowledge in biological sciences; develop
understanding of the conceptual structure of biological sciences; develop skills and
processes of biology among the students; create an opportunity to use inquiry approach
in teaching and learning of biology; prepare rich supplementary or support materials to
enrich learning experiences in biological sciences and present current status of
biological sciences

59

The organization of the BSCS project necessitated because of the inadequacies

and defects felt in the ongoing or conventional biological sciences teaching. Defects
were observed in conventional biological science teaching such as inclusion of dead or
useless contents in syllabus, little practical work, no correlation of biological sciences
and physical science, lack of integrated approach and no proper consideration of
psychological aspects of teaching learning.

The Science Education Project

These were the total efforts of SEP TO improve science education in the
Philippines. First, the dissemination of improved curricula, teaching techniques and
approaches in science and mathematics on basic levels of education through the
introduction of new curriculum and the application of new teaching techniques and
approaches by the returned Master of Arts in Teaching trainees and the teachers that
they teach. On the other hand, these institutions disseminated many of the curriculum
materials by the UP Science Education Center. Second, quality science and math
education programs in the recipient-sponsor institutions through new and/or improved
course offerings and a generally improved teacher education program.

Activity:
Answer the following questions:
1. What are the current trends in Science Education in the Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) results?
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2. What are the science-related issues and problems in the Philippines?

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3. How do new information technologies change the science education process?

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60
 PART II
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION

Introduction
Society applauds the recent advancements of scientific technology in fields
such as medicine, energy, and communication. While humankind profits in many
ways from this technology, a few voices are heard cautioning society to consider the
implications of this developments.
This section provides students deeper appreciation of man’s existence and
his purpose in a world of technology. It also discusses the concept of a good life and
how it can be attained. Moreover, it also focuses on the ethical and moral dilemma
brought about by the emergence of the robotic industry.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this section, the students are expected to:
1. Examine the human condition to deeply reflect and express philosophical
ramifications that are meaningful to the student as a part of society.
2. Critique human flourishing vis-a vis the progress of Science and Technology
to define the meaning of the good life.
3. Examine shared concerns that make up the good life in order to come up
with innovative and creative solutions to the contemporary issues guided
by ethical standards
4. Examine human rights in order to uphold such rights in technological
dilemnas.

CHAPTER 4 The Human Person Flourishing in terms of

Science and Technology

A. Technology as a Way of Revealing

A German philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote an essay entitled “The Question

Concerning Technology” which addresses modern technology and its essence as an
instrumental way of revealing the world. 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 humans encounter entities such as nature,
self, and, indeed, everything. That is to say, that modern technology is conceived as
means to achieve ends. As 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 of modern technology is a 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 “Physis” which is the arising of something from itself, a
bringing-forth or poieses. A flower

62

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 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 the challenging that brings forth the energy of nature is an “expediting”.
In the modern use of 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 towards
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 track loads of land so as 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 reserve 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. However, the hydropower plant reveals
the river that supplies it energy simply as another thing standing in reserve. It is a source
of energy which 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.it rather 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.

63

For Heidegger enframing is the “essence” of modern technology. Enframing

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. In here nothing is mysterious anymore. This is what Heidegger was
afraid of, that the process of truth will revert back into 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.

Because of man’s arrogance, nature is in 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.

Activity: Question for Reflection

Is there something unusual about the pace and nature of technological change today?
Should we be more worried about the world we are creating?
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B. Human Flourishing

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.

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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 have their own desired ends, and
Eudomenia 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.

According to Aristotle, all humans seek to flourish. It’s 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 don’t 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 rational beings, we are creative, expressive, knowledge-seeking
and able to obey reason. We might not always obey reason and we may sometimes not
want to exercise our minds, but a large part of our existence relate 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 goals. 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 vice-versa.

Not an abstraction, human flourishing is real and highly personal by nature,

consists in the fulfillment of both a 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

65

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 individually
and also 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 not 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, 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.

Activity: Film Viewing

Watch the movie clip (You tube) The Magician’s Twin: CS Lewis and the Case
against Scientism. Answer the following questions:

1. What is scientism according to the magician’s twin?

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2. Why did CS Lewis think that modern science is far more dangerous than
magic?
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66
 3. How can you prevent good from being twisted into evil ends? How can you
prevent science from becoming scientism? Share and explain your answer.
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4. Do you agree or disagree with the different quotes cited in the movie? Explain
your answer.

• Only science can save us from natural catastrophe – John Gray

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• Forget faith, only science can save us – Melanie Gosling

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Activity: Questions for Reflection

1. Does the idea of human flourishing reflect in progress and

development?
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 67

2. As you look at your daily life and in the past years, what are the
aspects of your life that have been the most rewarding and enriching? When
was the happiest?
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 68

CHAPTER 5
The Good Life

A. What is a Good Life?

This is one of the oldest philosophical questions. It has been posed in different
ways—How should one live? What does it mean to “live well”?—but these are really just
the same question. After all, everyone wants to live well, and no one wants “the bad life.”
But the question isn’t as simple as it sounds. Philosophers specialize in unpacking
hidden complexities, and the concept of the good life is one of those that needs quite a
bit of unpacking.
 One basic way we use the word “good” is to express moral approval. So when we
say someone is living well or that they have lived a good life, we may simply mean that
they are a good person, someone who is courageous, honest, trustworthy, kind, selfless,
generous, helpful, loyal, principled, and so on. They possess and practice many of the
most important virtues. And they don’t spend all their time merely pursuing their own
pleasure; they devote a certain amount of time to activities that benefit others, perhaps
through their engagement with family and friends, or through their work, or through
various voluntary activities. This moral conception of the good life has had plenty of
champions. Socrates and Plato both gave absolute priority to being a virtuous person
over all other supposedly good things such as pleasure, wealth, or power.

In Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, Socrates takes this position to an extreme. He

argues that it is much better to suffer wrong than to do it; that a good man who has his
eyes gouged out and is tortured to death is more fortunate than a corrupt person who
has used wealth and power dishonorably. In his masterpiece, the Republic, Plato
develops this argument in greater detail. The morally good person, he claims, enjoys a
sort of inner harmony, whereas the wicked person, no matter how rich and powerful he
may be or how many pleasure he enjoys, is disharmonious, fundamentally at odds with
himself and the world.

It is worth noting, though, that in both the Gorgias and the Republic, Plato
bolsters his argument with a speculative account of an afterlife in which virtuous people
are rewarded and wicked people are punished. Many religions also conceive of the
good life in moral terms as a life lived according to God’s laws. A person who lives this
way—
obeying the commandments and performing the proper rituals—is pious. And in most
religions, such piety will be rewarded. Obviously, many people do not receive their
reward in this life. But devout believers are confident that their piety will not be in vain.
Christian martyrs went singing to their deaths confident that they would soon be in
heaven. Hindus expect that the law of karma will ensure that their good deeds and
intentions will be rewarded, while evil actions and desires will be punished, either in this
life or in future lives.

69

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus was one of the first to declare, bluntly,
that what makes life worth living is that we can experience pleasure. Pleasure is
enjoyable, it’s fun, it’s...well...pleasant! The view that pleasure is the good, or, to put I
another way, that pleasure is what makes life worth living, is known as hedonism. The
word “hedonist,” when applied to a person, has slightly negative connotations. It
suggests that they are devoted to what some have called the “lower” pleasures such as
sex, food, drink, and sensual indulgence in general.
 Epicurus was thought by some of his contemporaries to be advocating and
practicing this sort of lifestyle, and even today an “epicure” is someone who is especially
appreciative of food and drink. But this is a misrepresentation of Epicureanism. Epicurus
certainly praised all kinds of pleasures. The good life has to be virtuous. Although
Epicurus disagreed with Plato about the value of pleasure, he fully agreed with him on
this point.

Today, this hedonistic conception of the good life is arguably dominant in Western
culture. Even in everyday speech, if we say someone is “living the good life,” we
probably mean that they enjoying lots of recreational pleasures: good food, good wine,
skiing, scuba diving, lounging by the pool in the sun with a cocktail and a beautiful
partner.

What is key to this hedonistic conception of the good life is that it emphasizes
subjective experiences. On this view, to describe a person as “happy” means that they
“feel good,” and a happy life is one that contains many “feel good” experiences.

If Socrates emphasizes virtue and Epicurus emphasizes pleasure, another great

Greek thinker, Aristotle, views the good life in a more comprehensive way. According to
Aristotle, we all want to be happy. We value many things because they are a means to
other things. For instance, we value money because it enables us to buy things we want;
we value leisure because it gives us time to pursue our interests. But happiness is
something we value not as a means to some other end but for its own sake. It has
intrinsic value rather than instrumental value.

So for Aristotle, the good life is a happy life. But what does that mean? Today,
many people automatically think of happiness in subjectivist terms: To them, a person is
happy if they are enjoying a positive state of mind, and their life is happy if this is true for
them most of the time.
Aristotle agrees with Socrates that to live the good life one must be a morally
good person. He also agrees with Epicurus that a happy life will involve many and
varied pleasurable experiences. We can’t really say someone is living the good life if
they are often miserable or constantly suffering.

Michael Soupios and Panos Mourdoukoutas wrote a book entitled The Ten
Golden Rules on Living a Good Life where they extracted “ancient wisdom from the
Greek philosophers on living the good life” and mapped it into modern times. Here is a
summary of what they wrote, extracted from a Forbes article written by Dr.
Mourdoukoutas:

70

1. Examine life, engage life with a vengeance; always search for new pleasures
and new destinies to reach with your mind.
 2. Worry only about the things that are in your control, the things that can be
influenced and changed by your actions, not about the things that are beyond your
capacity to direct or alter.

3. Treasure Friendship, the reciprocal attachment that fills the need for affiliation.
Friendship cannot be acquired in the market place, but must be nurtured and treasured
in relations imbued with trust and amity.

4. Experience True Pleasure. Avoid shallow and transient pleasures. Keep your
life simple. Seek calming pleasures that contribute to peace of mind. True pleasure is
disciplined and restrained.

5. Master Yourself. Resist any external force that might delimit thought and action;
stop deceiving yourself, believing only what is personally useful and convenient;
complete liberty necessitates a struggle within, a battle to subdue negative
psychological and spiritual forces that preclude a healthy existence; self-mastery
requires ruthless candor.

6. Avoid Excess. Live life in harmony and balance. Avoid excesses. Even good
things, pursued or attained without moderation, can become a source of misery and
suffering.

7. Be a Responsible Human Being. Approach yourself with honesty and

thoroughness; maintain a kind of spiritual hygiene; stop the blame-shifting for your errors
and shortcomings.

8. Don’t Be a Prosperous Fool. Prosperity by itself is not a cure-all against an ill

led life and may be a source of dangerous foolishness. Money is a necessary but not a
sufficient condition for the good life, for happiness and wisdom.

9. Don’t Do Evil to Others. Evildoing is a dangerous habit, a kind of reflex too

quickly resorted to and too easily justified that has a lasting and damaging effect upon
the quest for the good life. Harming others claims two victims—the receiver of the harm,
and the victimizer, the one who does harm.

10. Kindness towards others tends to be rewarded. Kindness to others is a good

habit that supports and reinforces the quest for the good life. Helping others bestows a
sense of satisfaction that has two beneficiaries—the beneficiary, the receiver of the help,
and the benefactor, the one who provides the help.

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Activity: Questions for Reflection
1. In your opinion, what constitutes a good life?

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2. What does Aristotle say about the good life? Does it still stand in the contemporary
world?
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3. How is the process in science and technology a movement towards the good life?
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A. What is Human Existence?

The meaning of existence is derived from philosophical and religious

contemplation and scientific inquiries about, social ties, consciousness and happiness.
Many other issues are also involved, such as symbolic meaning, ontology, value,
purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, the existence of one and multiple Gods,
conceptions of God, the soul and the afterlife.

Philosophers have tried to find the secret of existence, the meaning of it all.
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.
 72

Plato’s reputation comes from his idealism of believing in the existence of

universalis. His Theory of Forms proposes that universals do not physically exist, like
objects, but as heavenly forms. In the dialogue of Republic, the character of Socrates
describes the Form of the Good. His theory on justice in the soul relates to the idea of
happiness relevant to the question of the meaning of life. In Platonism, the meaning of
life is in attaining the highest form of knowledge, which is the Idea of the Good, from
which all good and just things derive utility and value.

B. What is a Public Good?

Rolando Gripaldo, a Filipino philosopher, argues that the concept of the

public good carries largely the politico-ethical sense, which subsumes the politico
ethical senses. The public good is public in the sense that the beneficiaries are
the general public. The government or state pursues it with a service orientation
while private corporations pursue it with a profit orientation. He also cites mixed
public goods which are pursued by private organizations with a service
motivation. Government corporations are basically motivated by service through
having profit is not precluded. He also talks about public bads, such as
corruption, pollution and crimes.

A public good is that which benefits by its use, the communal or national
public. This can be perceived in two levels. The first level comes from the people
themselves. They perceive the public good to be beneficial to most if not to all of
them. This utilitarian consideration is important in that, on the other hand, it
serves as the ethical standard by which the public-through a civil society-unify
themselves in consideration of their individual and social benefits. As individuals,
they may of course think in terms of their own selfish benefits from a public good,
but there is also a recognition that unless they work together for their common
welfare, the public good aspired for may not materialistic. They as individuals
may suffer as beneficiaries from its nonrealization. In this regard, then elements
of unity (bonding together for individual interests) and subsidiarity (working
together for the common good) are significant aspects of a national public good
from the communal or national people’s point of view. The second level comes
from the local or national government, which believes or assumes with the
utilitarian perspective that a particular project or service is desired by the
populace as necessary for their common welfare. As such, the local or national
government views it as a public good. Examples of these assumed necessary
public services or public goods are national defense, education, public health,
public ports/airports and highways, social services, postal services, and the like.
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Activity: Film Viewing

Watch the documentary “That Sugar Film” directed by Damon Gameau (

http://thatsugarfilm.com/ ). Do the following tasks:
1. Discuss your initial reaction to the film.
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2. Did you find the information offered up in the film to be shocking, or

were you aware of the role sugar plays in contemporary life?
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3. What is your relationship to sugar? Do you know how much sugar

do you consume on a daily basis? Do you consider yourself to be a
healthy eater?
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4. Why do you believe Americans have such a disproportionately

unbalanced relationship to sugar, as compared to the rest of
the world? What is it about American culture/life that feeds the
unhealthy overconsumption of the sweet stuff?
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5. Discuss the notion that “sugar is the new tobacco.” Do you believe
sugar should be taxed, as cigarettes and other nicotine products are
today?
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