ch 6-7

• ARISTOTELIANISM: Aristotle

  • The utmost good of a person’s endeavor to accomplish a goal is to flourish
  • According to aristotle: “what is beneficial for human beings with intentions and goals is good for all entities"
  • Aristotle suggests that what’s good for us individually is also good for everyone else. If something benefits us, it aligns with the greater good for all entities.
  • Human logical mind and free will = basic aspect of being human
• ARISTOTELIANIS

  • Technology is a tool
  • According to aristotle: Technology is an organization of ways to satisfy human demands
  • Technology focus on the result
  • The value assigned to a product based on its usage and impact on society will determine whether technology is harmful or not
• TECHNOLOGICAL PESSIMISM: Jaques Ellul (French Philosopher)

  • Believes that technology is helpful and developing, but also believes that ist questionable in many aspects
  • Technology is viewed as a tool, but has replaced everyday life
  • Jaques Ellul remarked that technological advancements causes more issues than it would cause, hence receiving criticism
• FOUR POINTS of technological pessimism:

  1. Technological advancements has a cost
  2. Technological advancements causes additional difficulties
  3. Technological advancements has negative impacts
  4. Technological advancements unanticipated and terrible repercussions
• TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIMISM

  • Highly supported by technologists, engineers, and regular people
  • Technology can cure all troubles and bring answers to future challenges
  • Technology will provide solutions even if technical difficulties develop
• Technocratism – regards technology as the ultimate authority in everything
• EXISTENTIALISM

  • Investigates the meaning of existence/being
  • Always confronted with the choice of which the existing must dedicate themself.
  • Guided by the “authenticity rule”
• • Martin Heidegger supports this existentialism
  • Addressed technology as its core
  • According to him: Enframing – is true core of technology
• Enframing – the collecting of the setting upon which man is challenged to bring the concealed to the revealed, a constant unveiling

  • It compels us to uncover what is hidden, obscured, or latent within the world. This challenge arises from our technological mindset, which constantly seeks to reveal, manipulate, and utilize the world’s resources.
• MARTIN HEIDEGGER

  • German Philosopher
• 2 common definitions of technology:

  1. A means to a goal
  2. A human activity

  • Both cannot exist without the other
  • The anthropological and instrumental definition of technology
  • Deceptive, since it confines our understanding
• ARISTOTLE’S FOUR CAUSES

  1. Causa Materialis or Material Cause

  • The material by which the silver chalice was made of: Silver

  1. Causa Formalis or Formal Cause

  • The form or the shape that gave the silver chalice its image.

  1. Causa Finalis or Final Cause

  • The fundamental function: the silver chalice was created to hold the wine, which stands in for the blood of Christ, during Holy Communion.

  1. Causa Efficiens or the Efficient cause

  • The agent that has caused for the silver chalice to come about: the silversmith
• Causa Materialis or Material Cause

  • The material by which the silver chalice was made of: Silver
• 1. Causa Formalis or Formal Cause

  • The form or the shape that gave the silver chalice its image.
• 1. Causa Finalis or Final Cause

  • The fundamental function: the silver chalice was created to hold the wine, which stands in for the blood of Christ, during Holy Communion.
• 1. Causa Efficiens or the Efficient cause

  • The agent that has caused for the silver chalice to come about: the silversmith
• POESIS – the process of anything coming into being

  • Outside force defines it
  • Bringing something hidden into the open 
• PHYSIS – anything that occurred naturally

  • Without any assistance (e.g. flowers bloomed without any help because it occurs naturally)
• Enframing 

  • True content/essence of technology
  • The ongoing pulling out of what is hidden
  • Ongoing revelation that something has to be made in public
  • Two way exchange:

  1. The concealed calls out for someone to unconceal it
  2. The one who hears the call and actus upon the concealed to unconceal it
• Heideger also highlighted the risk:

  • The desire to reveal the hidden also serves to hide something further
  • When one seeks to comprehend something, he tends to close off the thing being opened up to him
  • Man also has a tendency to misinterpret what is being shown to him
• Unlock and expose – nature won’t reveal itself unless provoked

  • Eg. Hydroelectric plant constructed on the river released the electricity it was hiding.
• Stockpiles for future use – technology strives to satisfy future expectations since it is a tool for a purpose

  • Eg. Hydroelectric plant constructed on the river released the electricity it was hiding.
• • HEIDEGGER’S CONCEPT IN TECHNOLOGY

  1. suggests that human action and constant revelation are key to challenging nature.
  2. suggests that humans can uncover what is hidden by examining and observing nature.
  3. uses the term "enframing" to describe this process, reflecting modern technology's challenge to uncover hidden aspects
  4. Enframing involves organizing what is available to humans, particularly hidden ones.
  5. Humans must respond to the call of enframing to reveal what's hidden
  6. This interaction sets modern technology apart from human efforts, emphasizing enframing as the core of technology. 
• Enframing – Simply being in the process of organizing everything available to humans, even what is concealed
• THE DANGER OF THE NONSTOP REVEALING

  • Man must always provide with what is needed for a better and more means to accomplish a goal
  • Belief that happiness depends on the continuous advancement of technology
• THE SOCIETY IN THE FACE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

  • Man finds enjoyment from modern technology
  • Usage of technologies in various sizes and designs
  • Face-to-face social contact are less common
  • No such thing as contentment
  • Physical work is declining 
• According to Heidegger, this may be avoided if man would not allow himself to be overwhelmed by the enframing that he was put upon but instead halt for a time and consider the worth of what is offered.

  • One must understand that technology concerns the means and the end; as one proverb goes, "the end does not justify the means."
  • the answer to this problem is for man to stop dominating and manipulating what he was given instead of allowing nature to show itself to him.
• HUMAN BEING is a sophisticated object capable of carrying out operations necessary for maintaining life
• Smith (2012): “We can’t turn to science for an answer because in the first place, science is identified human with varied option and limited evidence”
• Blakemore and Greendfield (1987): “The intelligence enables selfcosciousness and awareness to the extent necessary for humans to fulfill their functional needs, find truth, and advcance as a species” 
• ARISTOTLE’S VIEWPOINT

  Aristotle’s Every man’s existence has a purpose Everyone’s greatest objective and goal in life is to be happy One must nurture their finest values Aristotle thought that people naturally want to know and grasp the truth, strive for moral excellence, and actualize their goals in the world by their actions Viewpoint 
• Eudaimonia – Comfortable condition of being healthy, happy, and successful as well as the possession of a good indwelling spirit. n moral philosophy, it is to describe the right actions as those that lead to an individual’s well-being.
• Nietzsche’s Viewpoint

  • German philosopher who is well known in the 1870s and 1880s 
  • Happiness is a “Ideal state of laziness” 
  • Greatest aspiration of the man is to prosper and enjoy a happy existence and value 
  • Fulfillment may be restricted by one’s mental habits and values 
  • “What is happiness?” , “What is the purpose of your life?”
• Epicurus’ Viewpoint

  • Greek philosopher who was born in 341 B.C. 
  • He disagreed with the metaphysical philosophers 
  • Moderation and balance made room for happiness. 
  • True source of happiness Pleasure is the standard of morality
• According to Heidegger:

  • He is not convinced with the reasons used to justify such neglect- the self evidence, universality, and indefinability of the concept of being
  •  “Being” not equals to  “inquirer” 
  • “inquirer” = “man as a being” “what of human life”
• Eudaimonia – Comfortable condition of being healthy, happy, and successful as well as the possession of a good indwelling spirit. In moral philosophy, it is to describe the right actions as those that lead to an individual’s well-being.
• According to Heidegger:

  • He is not convinced with the reasons used to justify such neglect- the self evidence, universality, and indefinability of the concept of being
  •  “Being” not equals to  “inquirer” 
  • “inquirer” = “man as a being” “what of human life”
  • He focused on the “modes of existence” or the “who” of “Dasein”
  • Dasein exists in the world
  • Dasein has a self that it defines as its exists in such world

  'Dasein' is Heidegger's way of referring both to the human being and to the type of Being that humans have. It comes from the verb dasein, 'to exist' or 'to be there, to be here'.