THE HUMAN PERSON FLOURISHING IN TERMS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

HUMAN FLOURISHING
Eudaimonia, literally “good spirited,” is a term coined by renowned Greek philosopher Aristotle (385-323 BC) to
describe the pinnacle of happiness that is attainable by humans.
This has been translated into “human flourishing”
Human flourishing is defined as being “good spirited” in the classical Aristotelian notion.
It arises as a result of different components such as phronesis (Greek term for wisdom or intelligence),
friendship, wealth, and power.
In the Ancient Greek society, they believe that acquiring these qualities will surely bring the seekers happiness,
which in effect allows them to partake in the greater notion of what we call the GOOD.
As times change, elements that comprise human flourishing changed, which are subject to the dynamic social
history as written by humans.
Our concept of human flourishing today proves to be different from what Aristotle originally perceived then-
humans of today are expected to become a “man of the world”.
Competition as a means of survival has become out of date; coordination is the new trend.
Western civilization tends to be more focused on the individual
Eastern civilization are more community-centric.
The Chinese and the Japanese encourage studies of literature, sciences, and art, not entirely for oneself but in
service of a greater cause.
The Greek Aristotelian view, on the other hand, aims for eudaimonia as the ultimate good.
Flourishing borders allowed people full access to cultures that as a result, very few are able to maintain their
original philosophies.
It is in this regard that we would tackle human flourishing-in a global perspective and as a man of the world.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HUMAN FLOURISHING

According to Heidegger “ Technology is a human activity that we excel in as a result of achieving science”
The end goals of both science and technology and human flourishing are related, in that the good is inherently
related to the truth.
The following are two concepts about science which ventures its claim on truth.

SCIENCE AS METHOD AND RESULTS

For the most part, science’s reputation stems from the objectivity brought upon by an arbitrary, rigid
methodology whose very character absolves it from any accusation of prejudice.
Such infamy effectively raised science in a pedestal untouchable by other institutions- its sole claim to reason
and empiricism-garnering supporters who want to defend it and its ways.
General idea of how to do science:
o Observe
o Determine the problem
o Formulate hypothesis
o Conduct experiment
o Gather and analyze
o Formulate conclusion and provide recommendation

TECHNOLOGY AS A WAY OF REVEALING

 Comparing the lives of the people before and now will make anyone realize the changes that happened in
society not just in terms of culture, language, or rights but more importantly, changes in people’s way of life due
to the existence of science and technology.
The term “generation gap” is attributed mainly to the changes brought about by technology.
Although the original idea for technology is be comfortable in using the different kinds of technology, mostly
those who belong to the older generation think that these technologies are too complicated to operate.
The Human Condition Before Common Era
Our early ancestors’ primal need to survive paved way for the invention of several developments.
Gifted with brains more advanced than other creatures, humans are able to utilize abundant materials for their
own ease and comfort.
Homo erectus have been using fire to cook and marked the era of Stone Age
Homo sapiens humans began to sharpen stones as one would a knife; an example of this simple machine is
wedge.
Changes in their protective covering out of necessity, and gradually, added more to their garments.
What does this tell of them and their philosophies?
Were they perhaps proud to show off their hunt and how good of a hunter they were?
Were they concerned with social standing and stratification?
How about the meaning of life?
Were they also curious on finding explanations to certain phenomena?
It seems that they have found their answer in the person of religion through different figures in honor of some
deity.
Different tribes have different gods.
Nevertheless, it can be positively inferred that like the people of today, our ancestors also found the need to
explain things in a way that makes sense to them.
They quickly realized that there are events outside of their control and attempted to justify things as being a
work of a supernatural being.
The Human Condition in the Common Era
For a long time, humans were content with their relationship with nature.
Earliest case of man-made extinction occurred over 12 000 years ago, possibly brought upon by hunting and
territorial disputes.
The Holocene extinction, also called the sixth extinction or more aptly
Anthropocene extinction, occurred from as early as between 100 000 to 200 000 years up to the present.
It pertains to the ongoing extinction of several species-both flora and fauna- due to human activity.
People then had a new objective-gather as much products as possible.
They have to turned to wealth as one of their goals as humans and ultimately as civilizations, for they perceived
that those who have many, live comfortably and thus are generally happier than those who do not have
sufficient wealth.
Thus, they began to hunt, farm and produce things with prospect of profit.
Humanity became more complex.
The primary goal was not merely to survive, but to live the good life.
Technology has been instrumental in all of these because in searching for the good life, people were able to
come up with creations that would make life easier, more comfortable, and more enriching.
Position-wise, the humans of today are much better off compared to humans several centuries ago.
Advancements in medicine, technology, health, and education ushered in humanity’s best yet, and show no sign
of stopping.
Below are some of the notable comparisons then and now:
 1. Mortality Rate
2. Average Lifespan
3. Literacy Rate
4. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The Essence of Technology
Humanity has indeed come a long way from our primitive ways, and as a general rule, it is said that we are more
“developed” than we were before.
Modern humans are reliant on technology in their search for the good life.
We see ways and means from nature to utilize and achieve growth- a goal that we believe would bring forth
betterment.
It assumes that it is instrumental in achieving a goal in mind, that it is a purposeful, deliberate craft humans
steer in order to reach some greater good.
One philosopher by the name of Martin Heidegger identify that technology can either be perceived as first a
means to achieve man’s end and second, that which constitutes human activity. The second perspective paints
technology in such a way that each period reveals a particular character regarding man’s being.
Rather than thinking that humans have a clear idea of what to expect in a good life, it can be stated that
technology allows humans to confront the unknown and see how they would react.
This is the danger presented by too much reliance on technology.
Humans lose track of things that matter, reducing their surroundings to their economic value.
After all, it was science and technology that gave us explanations, which worked for us and benefited us.
It will be absurd to venture the dark and the unknown, but it should be done in order for us to retrace our steps
to be able to achieve the Good.

THE GOOD LIFE

INTRODUCTION
In ancient Greece, long before the word “science” has been coined, the need to understand the world and
reality was bound with the need to understand the self and the good life.
For Plato the task of understanding the things in the world runs parallel with the job of truly getting into what
will make the soul flourish.
Aristotle- theoretical and practical sciences
Theoretical disciplines includes logic, biology, physics and metaphysics
Practical disciplines includes ethics and politics
“Truth” is the aim of the theoretical sciences, the “good” is the end goal of the practical ones.
One must find the truth about what the good is before one can even try to locate that which is good.
What does it really mean to live a good life?
What qualifies as a good existence?

ARISTOTLE AND HOW WE ALL ASPIRE FOR A GOOD LIFE

Aristotle- the first philosopher who approached the problem of reality from a “scientific” lens as we know now,
is also the first thinker who dabbled into the complex problematization of the end goal of life: happiness.
Plato thought that things in this world are not real and are only copies of the real in the world of forms but
Aristotle puts everything back to the ground in claiming that this world is all there is to it and that this world is
the only reality we can access.
For Plato, change is so perplexing that it can only make sense if there are two realities: the world of forms and
the world of matter.
 Plato recognized change as a process and as a phenomenon that happens in the world, that in fact, it is
constant.
He also claims that despite the reality of change, things remain and they retain their ultimate “whatness”;
Plato was convinced that reality is full of these seemingly contrasting manifestations of change and permanence.
For Plato, this can only be explained by postulating two aspects of reality, two worlds if you wish: the world of
forms and the world of matter.
In the world of matter, things are changing and impermanent.
In the world of forms, the entities are only copies of the ideal and the models, and the forms are the only real
entities.
Aristotle disagreed with his teacher’s position and forwarded the idea that there is no reality over and above
what the senses can perceive.
It is only by observation of the external world that one can truly understand what reality is all about.
Change is a process that is inherent in things.
We, along with all other entities in the world, start as potentialities and move toward actualities.
The movement entails change.
Every human being moves according to some end.
Every action that emanates from a human person is a function of the purpose (telos) that the person has.
Every human person, according to Aristotle, aspires for an end.
This end is happiness or human flourishing.
We all want to be happy.
We may not realize it but the end goal of everything that we do is happiness.
What Aristotle actually means is human flourishing, a kind of contentment in knowing that one is getting the
best out of life.
A kind of feeling that one has maxed out his potentials in the world, that he has attained the crux of his
humanity.
HAPPINESS AS THE GOAL OF A GOOD LIFE
In the eighteen century, John Stuart Mill declared the greatest happiness principle by saying that an action is
right as far as it maximizes the attainment of happiness for the greatest number of people.
Mill said that individual happiness of each individual should be prioritized and collectively dictates the kind of
action that should be endorsed.
The ethical is, of course, meant to lead us to the good and happy life.
History has given birth to different schools of thought, all of which aim for the good and happy life.
MATERIALISM
The first materialists were the atomists in ancient Greece.
Democritus and Leucippus led a school whose primarily belief that is that is the world is made up of and is
controlled by the tiny indivisible units in the world called Atomos or seeds.
For Democritus and his disciples, the world, including human beings, is made up of matter.
There is no need to posit immaterial entities as sources of purpose.
Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world.
As such, only material entities matter.
In terms of human flourishing, matter is what makes us attain happiness.
We see this at work with most people who are clinging on to material wealth as the primary source of the
meaning of their existence.
HEDONISM
The hedonists, for their part, see the goal of life in acquiring pleasure.
Pleasure has always been the priority of hedonists.
 For them, life is about obtaining and indulging in pleasure because life is limited.
The mantra of this school of thought is the famous, “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die”.
Led by Epicurus, this school of thought also does not buy any notion of afterlife just like the materialists.
STOICISM
Another school of thought led by Epicurus, the stoics espoused the idea that to generate happiness, one must
learn to distance oneself and the apathetic (not having or showing much emotion or interest).
The original term, Apatheia, precisely means to be different.
For stoics, happiness can only be attained by a careful practice of apathy.
We should, in this worldview, adopt the fact that some things are not within our control.
The sooner we realize this, the happier we can become.
THEISM
Most people find the meaning of their lives using God as a fulcrum of their existence.
The Philippines, as a predominantly catholic country, is witness to how people base their life goals on beliefs
that hinged on some form of supernatural reality called heaven.
The ultimate basis of happiness for theists is the communion with god.
The world where we are in is only just a temporary reality where we have to maneuver around while waiting for
the ultimate return to the hands of god.
HUMANISM
Humanism as another school of thought espouses the freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to legislate
his own laws, free from the shackles of a god that monitors and controls.
For humanists, man is literally the captain of his own ship.
Inspired by the enlightenment in seventeenth century, humanists see themselves not merely a stewards of the
creation but as individuals who are in control of themselves and the world outside them.
This is the spirit of most scientists who thought that the world is a place and spacefor freely unearthing the
world in seeking for ways on how to improve the lives of its inhabitants.
As a result of the motivation of the humanist, current scientists eventually turned to technology in order to ease
the difficulty of life.
Scientists of today meanwhile are ready to confront more sophisticated attempts at altering the world for the
benefit of humanity.
Some people now are willing to tamper with time and space in the name of technology.
Whether or not we agree with these technological advancements, these are all undertaken in the hopes of
attaining the good life.
The balance, however, between the good life, ethics, and technology has to be attained.

WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS

Introduction
The ever-growing society has made people see technology as some form of necessity.
Technology-comes from the Greek word techne and logos which mean art and word.
Technology means a discourse on arts.
It first appeared in the 17th century where the concept was only used to talk about the arts, specifically applied
arts.
Concepts like machine and tools were also attached to the word “technology” which is the more popular sense
of the concept nowadays.
TELEVISION SETS, MOBILE PHONES, COMPUTERS AND HUMANITY
A number of technological devices can be easily found inside the home, the most accessible place to anyone.
 It can also be easily inferred that these technological devices are some of the most popular and most commonly
used types of devices across all age groups.
People all over the world use these technologies every day to accomplish different purposes.
TELEVISION
A product of different experiments by various people.
Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a German student, in the late 1800s was successful in his attempt to send images through
wires with the aid of a rotating disk.
This invention was the called “electric telescope” that had 18 lines of resolution.
In 1907, two inventors, Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton who was an English scientist and Boris Rosing who was
a Russian scientist, created a new system of television by using cathode ray tube in addition to the mechanical
scanner system.
Nipkow television Swinton-Rosing television
MOBILE PHONES
Mobile phones have a very interesting background story
On April 3, 1973 Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, made the world’s first mobile phone call.
The mobile phone used by Cooper weighed 1.1 kilograms and measured 228.6 x 127 x 44.4 mm.
This kind of device was capable of a 30 minute talk time.
However, it took 10 hours to charge.
In 1983, Motorola made their first commercial mobile phone available to the public.
It was known as the Motorola DynaTAC8000X (Goodwin, 2016)
COMPUTERS AND LAPTOPS
It was Charles Babbage, a 19th century English Mathematics professor, who designed the Analytical Engine
which was used as the basic framework of the computers even until the present time.
In general, computers can be classified in three generations.
Each generation of the computer was used for a certain period of time and each gave people a new and
improved version of the previous one (Steitz, n.d.)
The first true portable computer was released in April 1981.
It was called the Osborne 1 (Orfano, 2011)
A typical household owns at least four of the following devices: a mobile phone (89 %), smartphone (53 %),
tablet (14 %), desktop ( 39 %), laptop or netbooks (37 %), and smart TV (4 %) ( Philstar, 2013)
These data prove the deep-seated fascination of Filipinos to different technological devices.
Here are some facts about Filipinos and their use of gadgets and the Internet:
Mobile phone subscription is at 119 million.
Filipinos spend approximately 3.2 hours on mobile and 5.2 hours on desktop daily.
Currently, the Philippines has one of the highest digital populations in the world.
There are now 47 million active Facebook accounts in the Philippines.
The Philippines is the fastest-growing application market in Southeast Asia.
Roles Played by These Technological Advancements
Television
 advertisements and information dissemination
 recreational activity and good stress reliever
 good platform for different propagandas and advocacies
 good way to bond
Mobile Phones
 communication
 surf the internet
  take pictures
 Other applications like music player, calendar, radio and among others.
Personal computers and laptops
 Surf the internet and communication
 use for job
 play games
 watch movie etc.
Ethical Dilemma Faced by These Technological Advancements
Most parents would argue that these devices make their children lazy and unhealthy.
Moral dilemma
First dilemma, people who develop different kinds of sickness because of
too much use of technological devices.
Second dilemma, the people in the scientific world nor the children are blameworthy because first, the children
are not yet capable of rationally deciding for themselves what is good and what is bad. Second even the creators
of these technologies went out of their way to inform children of the pros and cons of these technological
contributions, it would still be useless because the children have no capacity to understand them yet.
It was the recklessness and overconfidence of the adults that cause the character change in children.
Robotics and Humanity
Another great product of the innovative minds of the people is the robot.
Robots are now widely used. Ex. There are so called service robots. These particular robots do specific tasks but
focus mainly in assisting their masters in their everyday tasks.
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UNECE) made it their task to formulate a working definition for service robots.
A preliminary extract of the relevant definition is (IFR, 2012):
A robot is an actuated mechanism programmable in two or more axes with a degree of autonomy, moving
within its environment, to perform intended tasks.
A service robot is a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment excluding industrial automation
application.
A personal service robot or a service robot for personal use is a robot used for a noncommercial task, usually by
laypersons. Ex. Domestic servant robot, automated wheelchair, personal mobility assist robot, and pet exercising
robot.
A professional service robot or a service robot for professional use is a robot used for a commercial task, usually
operated by a properly trained operator.
Ex. Cleaning robot for public places, delivery robot in offices or hospitals, fire fighting robot, rehabilitation robot,
and surgery robot in hospitals.
Germany was one of the first countries to develop service robots.
As part of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s “Service
Robotics Innovation Lead Initiative,” it sponsored a collaborative project called
DESIRE (Deutsche Servicerobotik Initiative-Germany Service Robotics Initiative) which was launced on October 1,
2005.
DESIRE has the following individual objectives:
To achieve a technological edge toward attaining key functions and components that are suited for everyday use
To create a reference architecture for mobile manipulation
To promote the convergence of technologies through integration into a common technology platform
To conduct pre-competition research and development activities for the new products and technology transfer
in start-up enterprises in the field of service robotics.
Some of the expected work to be performed by DESIRE are the ff:
“Clear up the kitchen table”
“Fill the dishwasher”
“Clear up this room”
Roles Played by Robotics
Used to ease the workload of mankind
To make life more efficient and less stressful
To entertain people
Just like people living in the society, robots also have their own set of rules and characteristics that define what a
good robot is.
These laws were formulated by Isaac Asimov back in the 1940’s, when he was thinking of the ethical
consequences of robots.
These are the following (Standford, n.d.):
Law One: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Law Two: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with
the First Law.
Law Three: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or
Second Law.
Ethical Dilemma/s Faced by Robotics
Safety
Emotional component
Partial autonomy includes active human-robot interaction
Full autonomy excludes active human-robot interaction