STS

• Modern technology is conceived as means to achieve ends.
• The essence of technology is not something we make; it is a mode of being, or of revealing. It shapes how technological things exist and interact in the world.
• Martin Heidegger - He is a German philosopher , “The Question Concerning Technology”
• Technology even holds sway over beings that we do not normally think of as technological, such as gods and history. Technology extends its influence.
• Technology is not just applying natural science practically; instead, science itself relies on technology's prior understanding of nature as calculable and orderable forces.
• The mode of revealing of modern technology is a challenging. It is putting to nature the unreasonable demand that it supply energy that can be extracted and stored.
• The challenging or demanding that brings forth the energy of nature is an “expediting” (meaning to speed up movement).
• “Standing in Reserve” - Term used by Heidegger to name the things that are revealed in modern technology.
• Objects are things that “stand against us” as things with autonomy
• Old technology respects nature as an autonomous object.
• differents modes of revealing - Modern: artificial , Old: natural
• “Enframing” in Heidegger’s view - the “essence” or core of modern technology.
• The “frame” of modern technology is the network or interlocking things standing in reserve.
• We cannot possess absolute knowledge or full control over reality; we are mere "guardians" of creation
• Eudaimonia - “good fortune”, “material prosperity”, 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.
• Three Motivating Parts of the Soul/Mind: Rational, Spirited or emotional, Appetitive
• Eudaimonia - It is constituted not by honor or wealth power but by rational activity in the virtues of character (including courage, honesty, pride, friendliness, and wittiness ).
• The intellectual virtues (rationality and judgement)
• Aristotle’s View - All humans seek to flourish - the proper and desired end of all of our actions. To understand flourishing, we must grasp the function of human nature.
• Four Aspects of Human Nature : Physical, Emotional, Social, Rational
• Physical – nourishment, exercise, and rest
• Emotional – wants, desires, urges and reactions
• Social – builds on emotions, function in particular societies.
• Rational – creative, expressive, knowledge seeking, and able to obey reason
• Self-actualization - involves moral growth, and vice versa.
• Self-realization - differs from one person to another, as concrete actions like choosing a career, education, friends, and home are individualized.
• To achieve human flourishing, one must use practical reasoning to consider their unique needs, circumstances, and capabilities.
• To achieve human flourishing it encompasses a wide range of goals, such as: ◈ knowledge ◈ character development ◈ productive work ◈ religious pursuits ◈ community building ◈ love ◈ charitable activities ◈ loyalty to people and causes ◈ self-confidence ◈ material well-being and ◈ pleasurable experiences.
• To flourish, a man must pursue goals that are both rational for him individually and also as a human being.
• Living rationally (consciously) - means dealing with the world conceptually, implies respect for the facts of reality, not affected by the degree of one’s intelligence, not the extent of one’s knowledge; rather, it is accepting and using one's reason to recognize reality, choose values, and take actions to the best of their ability.
• Human flourishing - is linked to a rational person's efforts to express their values and bring their internal vision of how things should be into the external world.
• Practical reason plays a crucial role in choosing, creating, and integrating the values and virtues that contribute to personal flourishing.
• ● When we say someone is living well or has led a good life, we often mean they are a morally good person. This includes qualities like ○ courage ○ honesty ○ trustworthiness ○ kindness ○ selflessness ○ generosity ○ loyalty.
• This moral understanding of the good life, prioritizing virtues, has been supported by philosophers like Socrates and Plato, who valued being virtuous over other things like pleasure, wealth, or power.
• Plato’s Gorgias - a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC. The dialogue depicts a conversation between Socrates and a small group of sophists (and other guests) at a dinner gathering.
• Sophist - a paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece, associated in popular thought with moral skepticism and specious reasoning.
• Socrates strongly argues that it's better to endure injustice than to commit it.
• In Plato's Republic, the idea of Socrates is expanded upon. ● Plato contends ○ Morally good people: experience inner harmony ○ Wicked (despite their wealth and pleasures): fundamentally in conflict with themselves and the world.
• Plato’s View ● In both the Gorgias and the Republic, Plato supports his argument by speculating about an afterlife where ○ Virtuous people: rewarded ○ Wicked ones: punished.