CHAPTER 4

Human Flourishing
in Science
Technology
GROUP 1
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

■ Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter , the students should be
able to:

1. Discuss what technology reveals;

2. Examine modern technology and its role in
human flourishing ; and
3. Explain the role of art in a technological
world.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology
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The progress of Human civilizations throughout history mirrors the

development of science and technology. The Human Person, as both the
bearer and beneficiary of science and technology, flourishes and finds
meaning in the world that he/she builds. In the person's pursuit of the good
life, he/she may unconsciously acquire, consume, or destroy what the world
has to offer. Science and Technology must be taken part of human life that
merits reflective and as the German philosopher Martin Heidegger says
meditative thinking. Science and Technology, despite its methodical and
technical nature, gives meaning to the life of a person making his/her way in
the world.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

Martin Heidegge
r
• Was a German philosopher wh
o is widely regarded as one of t
he most important philosopher
s of the 20th century. He is best
known for contributions to phe
nology, hermenuetics , and exis
tentialism.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology
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To be able to appreciate the fruits of science and technology, they must be

examined not only for their function and instrumentality but also for their
greater impact on humanity as a whole. The various gadgets, machines,
appliances, and vehicles are all tools that make human lives easier. Their utility
lies on providing people with a certain good, convenience, or knowledge.
Meanwhile, medical research employs the best scientific and technological
principles to come up with cures for diseases and ways to prevent illnesses to
ensure a good quality of life.
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 Human Flourishing in Science Technology

Technology As A Mode 0f Revealing

●The Question of Technology by Martin Heidegger.
o The essence of a thing is considered to be what the thing is.
o Technology is a means to an end.
o Technology is a human activity.
o The manufacture and utilization of equipment,tools, and
machines, and the needs and endsthey serve.
o Contrivance – instrumentum in latin word
o Correct, but not necessarily true.
●Experience and understanding of what is correct canlead us to
what is true.
●Heidegger – technology as a mode of revealing.
o Shows much more about the human person andthe world.
o The truth is then brought forth.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

●Greek concepts:
o Aletheia – unhideness or disclosure.
o Poiesis – bringing forth.
□ Aristotle – making or producing somethingfor a purpose.
o Techne – skill, art, or craft.
□ Means of bringing forth something.
●Technology as poetry.
o More reflective and sensitive way of looking at the world.
o Not an easy perspective to take in this era.
□ Instant knowledge is demanded and split-second updates are a
norm.
□ Pursuit of fame and fortune is unceasinglybannered in social media.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

● Technology as Poeisis: Applicable to modern

technology?
●Modern technology is very aggressive in its activity.
●Modern technology demands resources from nature that are forcibly e
xtracted for human consumption and storage.
●With modern technology, revealing never comes toan end.
●We no longer need to work with the rhythms of nature since w
e have learned to control it.
o Order, extract, process, make ready for consumption, and store w
hat we have forced it to reveal.
●Modern technology – age of switches, standing reserve, and stockp
iling for its own sake
 Human Flourishing in Science Technology

oning as the Piety of Thought

●Piety means obedience and submission.

o Submission to our thoughts and reflections.
o It is when we start questioning that we submit ourselves to our
thoughts.

●Questioning leads one to search for his/her place in the universe and in
the grand-scale of things.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

■ ENFRAMING : WAY OF REVEALING IN MODERN

TECHNOLOGY

• This enframing that challenges forth and sets upon nature is a way of
looking at reality .

• As if is nature put in a box or in a frame so that it can be better

understood and controlled according to people's desires.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

Poeisis – concealed in enframing as nature is viewed

as an orderable and calculable system of information.

■ Heidegger distinguished two modes of thinking:

●Calculative thinking – one orders and puts a system to

nature so it can be understood better and
controlled.
●Meditative thinking – one lets nature reveal itself to
him/her without forcing it.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

One kind of thinking is not in itself better than other. The human person
has the faculty for both and would do well to use them in synergy.
However people want control and are afraid unpredictability, so
calculative thinking is more often used. Enframing is done because
people want security ,even if the ordering that happens in enframing is
violent and even the Earth made a big gasoline station
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

• HUMAN PERSON SWALLOWED BY

TECHNOLOGY
Human Flourishing in Science Technology
• If we allow ourselves to get swallowed by modern technology, we lose the essence of
who we are as beings in this world. If we are constantly plugged online and no longer
have the capacity for authentic personal encounters, then we are truly swallowed by
technology.
• If we cannot let go of the conveniences and profits brought about by processes and
industries that pollute the environment and cause climate change, then technology has
consumed our humanity.

"But where danger is, grows the saving power also."

- Holderlin

SAVING POWER - lies in the essence of technology as technology.

"essence of technology is nothing technological"
- Heidegger (1977)
 Human Flourishing in Science Technology

▪The essence of technology is not found in the instrumentality and function of machines
constructed,
but in the significance such technology unfolds.
▪Heidegger also expressed that the various problems brought about by human's dependence on
technology cannot be simply resolved by refusing technology altogether saying,

Thus we shall never experience our relationship to the essence of technology so long as we merely
represent and pursue the technological, put up with it, or evade it. Everywhere we remain unfree and
chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the
worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today
we particularly like to pay homage, makes us utterly blind to the essence of technology.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

• Art as a Way of Enframing

●Enframing tends to block poiesis.

●In modern technology, the way of revealing has become challenging.
●Heidegger proposes art as a way out of enframing.
●Art allows us to see the poetic in nature in reality.
o From calculative thinking to mediative thinking.
●Nature is the most poetic.
●In the nuclear age, we view nature as a problem to be solved.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

●Meditative thinking provides a way for us to remain rooted in the

essence of who we are.
o Ground us so as to not let our technological devices affect our
real core and wrap our nature.

●Aristotle’s conception of the four causes as explained by

Heidegger:
o Causa materialis – the material.
o Causa formalis – the form.
o Causa finalis – the end.
o Causa efficiens – brings about the effect.
Human Flourishing in Science Technology

Questions for Reflection:

1. How is technology a mode of revealing?

2. In your daily experience of technology, what else is
revealed to you aside from its function?
3.Why should technology be questioned ?
4. How is questioning of piety of thought?
5. How does art provide a way out of enframing?
CHAPTER 5

HUMAN FLOURISHING AS
REFLECTED IN PROGRESS AND
DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN FLOURISHING AS REFLECTED IN PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT

●Forget ‘developing’ poor countries, it’s time to de-develop’ rich countries

o Jason Hickel
●Eradicated poverty by 2030.
o Main objective of the UN’s SDG.
oThrough growth.
●Our planet only has enough resources for each of us to consume 1.8 “global hectares” annually.
o Standardized unit that measures resource use and waste.
o Roughly what the average person in Ghana or Guatemala consumes.
o US and Canada – 8 hectares per person.
o Europeans – 4.7 hectares per person.
o Cuba – 1.9 hectares.
HUMAN FLOURISHING AS REFLECTED IN PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT

●Instead of pushing poorer countries to “catch up”with rich

ones, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to “catch
down” to more appropriate levels of development.
●Life expectancy & literacy – two indicators of thequality of
life.
●Overconsumption puts the society and planet at risk.
●Either we slow down or climate change will slow us down for us.
●Rethinking our theory of progress is an ecological imperative and
a development one
HUMAN FLOURISHING AS REFLECTED IN PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT
Thank you for
listening!