STAS1

• There are pollutants that are products of technology (plastics, metals, radical wastes, etc.)
• Socrates: '"The unexamined life is not worth living"'
• Socrates: '"The unexamined life [use of technology] is not worth living"'
• We want to be the master of technology, not slave of it
• Philosophy


  • Love of wisdom (philos and sofia)
  • 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


  • Technology is basically a means to an end
  • Technology is the organizing of techniques in order to meet the demand that is being posed by humans
  • 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 who made the technology: 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
• Technology 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
  • 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
  • Revolve around the meaning or existence of a thing or person
  • This view basically investigate 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, a philosopher is one of the most known supporters of this philosophy
  • His inquires are about the essence of technology
• Martin Heidegger (1889-1996) 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
  • He called it the instrumental and anthropological definition of technology or simply means by which the human ends are realized
• Human Being


  • We can't turn to science for an answer because in the first place, science identified human with varied opinion and limited evidence
  • The possession of intellect distinguishes a human being from another creature
  • This intellect supports self-consciousness and awareness sufficient for the achievement of human's function, discovery of truth, and development and mankind
  • We can't rely on science in defining "being"
  • Asking for the meaning of the term "being" doesn't suggest that the "inquirer" has no idea about it because in the first place, the meaning of "being" is associated with the concept of existence, which means that the "inquirer" already has the idea on the term "however vague or incomplete"
  • This somehow justifies human being's adaptability to environmental changes and ability to manipulate environment in the interest of survival
• Dasein


  • Heidegger used the term "dasein" which literally means "being there" focuses on the "mode of existence" or the "who" of "Dasein"
  • The "modes of existence" is fundamentally established by two things: Dasein exist in a world, Dasein has a self that it defines as it exist in such world
  • This support human being's capacity to decide on what is good or bad for them
• Understanding Human Flourishing


  Human being is endowed with innate abilities and characteristics that let him sustain his function and to survive in the given environment
• Aristotle's Viewpoints


  • Each man's life has a purpose and that the function of one's life is to attain that purpose
  • Happiness (earthly) is the highest desire and ambition of all human beings
  • To achieve happiness, one must cultivate the highest virtues within oneself
  • 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
  • These actions are geared towards one's proper and desired end-flourishing, happiness or eudemonia
• Eudomenia


  • Etymologically speaking, eudemonia is consists of Greek words "eu" which means "good" and "daemon" which means "spirit"
  • Meaning "the state of having good indwelling spirit; a good genius"
  • Eudaimonia (also known as Eudaemonism) is a Greek word, which refers to state of having a good indwelling spirit of being in a contented state of being healthy, happy and prosperous
  • In moral philosophy, eudaimonia is used to refer to the right actions as those that result in the well-being of an individual
  • Doing right actions by acquiring virtues: Intellectual (pursue for wisdom), Moral (can only be developed when it becomes our habit)
• Epicurus's Viewpoints


  • Epicurus (born 341 B.C) was a Greek philosopher who contradicted the metaphysical philosophers
  • He believed that balance and temperature were created space for happiness
  • His view is not more of how happiness can be defined but more on theory about the real source to experience it
  • Happiness should be pleasurable
• Nietzche's Viewpoint


  • Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher and cultural critic who published intensively in the 1870s and 1880s
  • He is known for his criticisms on psychological analyses that resulted to opposing ideas on the people's received ideas
  • For him happiness is an "ideal state of laziness"
  • Laziness for him is described as to not have any worries or distress in life
• Albert Camus


  • Life is devoid of intrinsic meaning
  • "chaining yourself to the absurd" simply means living with the acknowledgement that life is flawed
  • Be happy with our friends, in harmony with the world, and earn our happiness by following a path which nevertheless leads to death
• Philosophers' views are the evidence of objective sense of how it means to flourish
• It accepts that man's ultimate desire of living is to flourish and to experience a life of well-being (life that goes well for him)
• Flourishing can either be based on the state of mind (e.g mental habit) or a kind of value (e.g insights, outlook)