Human Person Fluorishing in terms of STAS

• Socrates: '"The unexamined life is not worth living"'
• Socrates: '"The unexamined life [use of technology] is not worth using the technology."'
• Philosophy


  Love of wisdom, an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other
• Philosophy of technology


  Studies the character of technology and its relations to society
• Aristotelianism


  • Views technology as basically a means to an end
  • To Aristotle, technology is the organizing of techniques in order to meet the demand that is being posed by humans
  • This may seem that technology is primarily concerned with the product
• Aristotle's Four Causes

  • Causa Materialis or the Material Cause (silver)
  • Causa Formalis or the Formal Cause (form or shape)
  • Cuasa Finalis or the Final Cause (the purpose)
  • Causa Efficiens or the Efficient Cause (agent: silversmith)
• Technological Optimism

  • Strongly supported by technologists and engineers and also by ordinary people who believe that technology can alleviate all the difficulties and provide solutions for problems that may come
  • The extreme version of this philosophy is technocratism which holds technology as the supreme authority on everything
  • Technology is beneficial in many ways but can also be harmful in many ways
• Technological Pessimism

  • Technological progress has a price
  • Technological progress creates more problems
  • Technological progress creates damaging effects
  • Technological progress creates unpredictable devastating effects
• Existentialism


  • The main concern of this view is the existence or the mode of being of someone or something which is governed by the norm of authenticity
  • This view basically investigates the meaning of existence or being and is always faced with the selection must make with which the existent will commit himself to
• Martin Heidegger on Science and Technology

  • Examined the two usual definitions of technology: means to an end and a human activity, because he believed that this kind of confusing and there are questions to it that we easily overlook
  • Instrumental definition of technology encourages us to view technology from different periods of time as not having fundamental differences
  • Technology is by no means technological and should not be seen as merely neutral
  • The problem begins when humans see it only as a means to an end and disregard the fact that there is a good technology and a bad technology
  • Another problem Heidegger saw in the instrumental definition of technology is that it only invites man to a continual desire to master it which unconsciously may be making technology go out of hand
• Poesis


  Bringing forth, characterized by an external force, bringing something concealed to unconcealment
• Physis


  Something that came without any external force, like a flower blooming in the field or a tree bearing its fruits
• Heidegger's Technology as a Way of Revealing

  • The genuine substance or the real essence of technology is found in enframing, the continuous bringing forth into unconcealment that which is concealed
  • Contrast between ancient and modern technology: ancient windmill, peasant planting seeds, wooden bridge vs. hydroelectric plant, unlocking and exposing nature, stockpiling for future use
• Enframing


  Gathering of the setting-upon challenges to bring the concealed to unconcealment, shows the essence of modern technology, putting in order whatever is presented to the man who sets upon the unconcealed
• Revealing opens up a relationship between man and the world


  An opening up of something means a closing down of something which means as something is revealed, another is concealed
• When man falls into a misinterpretation of that which is presented to him, he sees himself in the object before him rather than seeing the object itself
• Heidegger argued that man can prevent being overwhelmed with the enframing by pausing to reflect on the value of what is presented anthropologically
• Technological Pessimism

  • Technological optimism believes that technology is the answer to all man’s problems.
  • Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) French philosopher holds that technology is progressive and beneficial in many ways, it is also doubtful in many ways.
• The mode of revealing in modern technology.

  • Unlock and Expose: It carries the idea that nature will not reveal itself unless challenge is set upon it.
  • the hydroelectric plant causes the Rhine to produce hydraulic pressure which in turn causes the turbines to work so that eventually electricity is produced.
  • Stock piles for future use: As technology is a means to an end, it aims to meet future demands.
  • The electricity produced by the hydroelectric plant set upon the Rhine River is being stored for future use in the community.