Module 2

Science, Technology & Society and the Human Condition

INTRODUCTION
The advancement of science and technology has made in recent years in various fields,
such as medicines, energy, and communication have transformed how we perceive ourselves,
time, place, and our environment. While humankind profits in many ways from this technology, a
few voices are heard cautioning society to consider the implications of these developments.
The purpose of this module is to discuss the interface of scientific technology and the
human condition. This module has three lessons. Lesson 1 describe the human person flourishing
in terms of science and technology. Lesson 2 explain the concept of human condition and how
technology aided in revealing the truth about human being. Lesson 3 identifies the role of
technology in human flourishing within the context of larger community of individuals and explained
human nature, flourishing and good life.
At the end of this module the student must have
1. Analyzed the human condition to deeply reflect and express philosophical
ramifications that are meaningful to the student as a part of society.
2. Critiqued human flourishing vis-à-vis the progress of science and technology so that
the student can define for himself/herself the meaning of the good life
3. Examined shared concerns that make up the good life to come up with innovative,
creative solutions to contemporary issues guided by ethical standards.

Lesson 1 The Human Person Flourishing in terms of Science and

Technology

Objectives:

At the end of the lesson the students must have:

1. Identified the different views contributed on how technology is understood and

utilized by the society.
2. identified the positive effects and danger of the interface of technology and
human existence.

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 What does it mean for human being to flourish? Why human flourishing important? How
does one achieve human flourishing?
Human flourishing is as an effort to achieve self –actualization and fulfillment within the
context of a larger community of individuals, each with the right to pursue his or her own efforts.
The goal and reward of human flourishing are virtues, values, and happiness. This can be
achieved through a person’s own efforts. Each person has reason and free will and the capacity to
initiate conduct that will enhance or inhibit his flourishing. Flourishing can only gain expression
when a man has responsibility for his own choices.

Technology has always been defined as a means to an end and being a human activity. It has long filled
the word. Everyday routines are marked with technological advances that reflect what a society is
good or known for. Technology has well advanced since the middle of the 20th Century especially
after the end of world war II. It is not unexpected for technology to involve question. Knowledge
which lead to its formation as one of the branches of philosophy. This also led to the furtherance of technology
based on how it is viewed and understood. To understand the human person flourishing in terms of
science and technology, itis good to first examine technology in its essence. It has been said that
there are many views or ways to how technology is understood. These philosophies contributed on
how technology is understood and utilized the society. Some of these philosophies will be briefly
discussed below:

ARISTOTLELIANISM
As the father of western logic, Aristotle was the first to develop a formal system for
reasoning. He observed that the deductive validity of any argument can be determined by its
structure rather than its content, for example, in the syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a
man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. The universe according to was hierarchical, and he made a
sharp distinction between the sublunary world of change, and the eternal and immutable heavens.

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Substance is for Aristotle a merging of matter into form. The term "matter" is used by Aristotle in
four overlapping senses.
According to Aristotle, technology is an arrangement of technics to make possible and
serve the attainment of human ends. Techno as productive cognition is the capacity to make
involving reasoning. Then, technological knowledge is different from both, every day
and scientific knowledge. This 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. Technology will be judged as
either good or bad based on the value given to the product based on its use and effect to the society.

TECHNOLOGICAL PEMISISM

This views is extremely supported by French philosopher Jacques Ellul(1912-1994).

Technological Pessimism holds that technology is progressive and beneficial in many ways, it is also doubtful
in many ways. It is said that technology is a means to and end but this views, technology has become a way of life.
Technique has become a framework which human cannot escape. It has introduced ways on how to make things
easy Ellul's pessimistic arguments are

1. Technological progress has a price,

2. Technological progress creates more problems,
3. Technological progress creates damaging effects, and
4. Technological progress creates unpredictable devastating effects

Although Ellul as strongly spoken of his arguments, they are still found to be weak and not true at all times.
Like when he said that technological progress can create more problems than it solves, he seems to have
underestimated the objective decisions a technician, and other technological agencies makes regarding the technology
where they weigh the good and bad effects it can have in the society.

TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIMISM

This view is strongly supported by technologist an engineers and also by ordinary people
who believe that technology can alleviate all the difficulties and provide solutions for problems that may
come. It holds that even though technological problems may arise, technology will still be the
solutions to it. The extreme version of this philosophy is technocratism which holds technology
as the supreme authority on everything.

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 existence will
commit himself to. Martin Heidegger, a philosopher who was one of the most known supporters of this

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philosophy. He did not stop defining what technology is but has dealt with its essence. To Heidegger, the real
essence of technology lies in enframing, the gathering of the setting upon which challenges man to bring
the unconcealed to concealment and this is a continuous revealing. He 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 question to it that we easily overlook. He called it the instrumental and
anthropological; definition of technology or simply by which the human ends are realized. To
Heidegger, this may not be a false definition but it is misleading one because this limits our
thinking.

According to Heidegger, the instrumental definition of technology encourages us to view technology from
different periods of time as not having fundamental differences. But he claimed that this does no-show the
true essence of technology. He explained that while technology is geared towards meeting a human needs, still
there is a difference between older handicraft technologies with modern technology. As it is, "a saw
mill on secluded valley of the Black Forest is a primitive means compared with the hydroelectric plant
on the Rhine River " (Heidegger,1977,p.I). Heidegger also argued that " technology is by no means
technological" and should not be seen as merely neutral. The problem begins when humans see it
only as means to an end and disregard the fact that there is a good technology and 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. Heidegger said," Everything depends on our manipulating technology in the proper
manner as a means. We will, as we say, 'get' technology 'spiritually in hand'. We will master it. The will to mastery
becomes the more urgent the more technology threatens to slip from human control." (Heidegger, 1977,p.I)
with this, the argued that the problem does not fall on making technology better but on how man
sets upon technology, his thoughts that makes him blind to the real essence of technology. For Heidegger, this
correct definition of technology is insufficient as it does not bring out its real essence. He said, “In
order that we may arrive at this, or at least come close to it, we must seek the true by way of the correct. We
must ask: what is the instrumental itself? Within what do such things as mean and end belong?
(1977,p.2) In answering these question, Heidegger arrived at a discussion of causality which to him
in reality initially involves four ways that leads for something to exist or to be “caused".

Technology a way of revealing:

Heidegger believed that the genuine substance or the real essence of technology
is found in enframing. This is the continuous bringing forth into unconcealment that which
is concealed. This is a non-stop revealing. Heidegger saw technology as a way
of revealing and continues to demand for something to be bought out into the open. This
bringing forth into the open is a two-way relationship: the concealed is calling out for
someone to set upon it and bring it to unconcealment and the one who receives the
call sets upon and acts upon to unconceal the concealed.

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The Mode of Revealing the Modern Technology

Modern technology is revealed by challenging nature, instead of bringing forth, it is setting

upon challenges or demands on nature in order to:

1. Unlock and expose. It carries the idea that nature will not reveal itself unless challenge is set upon it. This
is true with the hydroelectric plant set upon the Rhine River which unlocked the electricity concealed in it.

2. 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. Modern technology is now able to get more from nature by challenging it.
As Heidegger (1997) said," Such challenging happens in that energy concealed in nature in
unblocked is transformed, what is transformed is stored up, what is stored up is distributed, and what is
distributed is switched about ever a new"

The Essence of Technology

The continuous revealing takes place as man allows himself to be an agent in the setting
upon of challenges to nature but Heidegger (1977) argues that this is not more human doing. Man
is able to set upon which was already unconcealed as he responds to the call of unconcealment
but "when man, investigating, observing, pursues nature as an area of his own conceiving, he has
already been claimed by a way of revealing that challenges him to approach nature as an object of
research, until even the object disappears into the objectlessness of standing-reserve.

This gathering of the setting-upon which challenges man to bring the unconcealed to
unconcealment is called enframing with which according to Heidegger, also shows the
essence of modern technology. Enframing is basically putting in order whatever is presented to the
man who sets upon the unconcealed but it is a two-way relationship: man cannot set himself upon
unconcealment without unconcealment's call and the unconcealed will not go into
unconcealment without the man responding to its call. This makes modern technology not a mere
human doing and with this Heidegger argued that the essence of technology lies in enframing.

The Danger of Non Stop Revealing

As said earlier, the mode of revealing does not stop in modern technology. It continually
calls man to respond to what is presented to him or to the demand for a better and efficient means
to an end. With this comes the continuous challenging forth for the unconcealed to be unconcealed
even more. Here lies the danger that Heidegger talked about.

Revealing opens up a relationship between man and the word but an opening up of
something means a closing down of something which means as something is revealed, another is
concealed. An example given by Heidegger on this "the rise of a cause-effect understanding of
reality closes" off an understanding of God as something mysterious and holy: God is reduced to
'the god of the philosophers"(Cerbone,2008).

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 Another danger is when man falls into a misinterpretation of that which is presented to him.
That is when he sees himself in the object before him rather than seeing the object itself. There is
also tendency for man to be fully engrossed with enframing that he fails to weigh the results and
consequences of his setting upon an object which may be distructive not only to himself but even
to the surroundings and other people. This happens when he starts to believe that everything in the
human condition can be answered by technology and that even man’s happiness is dependent on
the continuous modernization of technology.

The Society in the Face of Science and Technology.

When one looks around him now, he will see that man tends to find his happiness in the works of modern
technology. Smart phones, tablets, laptops that come in different shapes and sizes with distinct features seem to be the
measure of man's value. Social media has also affected the life on many. Face to face social interactions are being
lessened and people keep working hard to update their gadgets. There seems to be no contentment as every time a
new product is released, man finds another need that can only be answered by a new product. These new products
also tend to replace man in the society as the demand for manual labor is becoming less and less because of the
availability of machineries

The human condition is not of without hope. Heidegger argued that this can be prevented if man will not allow
himself to be overwhelmed with the enframing that he was set upon, but he pause for a while and reflect on the value of
what is presented before him. A balance has to be stuck between technology being instrumental and anthropological.
One has to understand that technology does not only concerns the means but also the end as one proverbs goes “The
end does not justify the means”. For Heidegger, the solution for this is that man would not be controlling and manipulate
of what was set upon but also allow nature to reveal itself to him. With this, according to Heidegger, man will have free
relationship with technology.

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 1. Describe the use of technology according to some various scholars such as Aristotle
and Heidegger.

According to Aristotle technology is

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According to Heidegger technology is

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2. What is the main use of technology according to Heidegger?

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3. Technology affects the way individuals communicate, learn, and think. It

helps society and determines how people interact with each other on a daily
basis. Technology plays an important role in society today. It has positive and negative
effects on the world and it impacts daily lives. Identify some of these positive and
negative effects of technology and explain how these affect your daily life.
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 Name: __________________________________ Date Accomplished: _________
Course, Year, & Section: ____________________ Remarks: __________________

1. We are deficient beings who use technology to complement, enhance, or disburden

ourselves. Technology has without a doubt become a central part of
the human condition - for better and worse. It influences us, just as much as we
influence it, in our daily lives, but also as moral and ethical beings. Identify one
technology and explain how an environmentalist, sociologist, and economist views
them. Tabulate your discussion.

Technology Environmentalist lens Sociologist lens Economist lens

2. Plenty of cases you can find destructions due to men/s irresponsibility than men
invents solutions to those destructions and call those inventions progress in the name
of science. What a fool – why the destructions by irresponsibility in the first place?

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Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology, And Other Essays. New York : Harper &
Row, 1977.

McNamara, D.J. et.al. (2018) Science, Technology and Society. C & E Publishing, Inc.

Serafica, J.P.J. et al. (2017) Science, Technology and Society. Rex Bookstore

Balakrishnan, Janaki and B V Sreekantan, eds. Nature’s Longest Threads: New Frontiers in the
Mathematics and Physics of Information in Biology, World Scientific, 2014.
Dayrit, Fabian. “Sustainable Development: An Evolving Paradigm for the 21st Century,” in Stellar
Origins, Human Ways: Readings in Science, Technology, and Society, ed. Ma. Assunta
Cuyegkeng, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2011.
Ecker, David J. Germ Catcher, Scientific American, 2014.
Floridi, Luciano. The Fourth Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality, Oxford
University Press, 2014.
Gripaldo, Rolando. “The Concepts of the Public Good: A View from the Filipino Philosopher” in The
Making of a Filipino Philosopher and Other Essays, pp. 82-100, National Bookstore, 2009.
Hickel, Jason. “Forget ‘developing’ poor countries, it’s time to ‘de-develop’ rich countries,” The
Guardian, Online: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-
network/2015/sep/23/developing-poor-countries-de-develop-richcountries-sdgs.
Lehrer, Jonah. How We Decide, Mariner Books, 2010 Maboloc, Christopher Ryan. “Eudaimonia
and Human Flourishing” in Ethics and Human Dignity, 15-23, Rex Bookstore, 2010.
McNamara, Daniel J. in “A Return to the Beginning,” in Stellar Origins, Human Ways: Readings in
Science, Technology, and Society, ed. Ma. Assunta Cuyegkeng, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila
University Press, 2011.
Dubos, Rene, "Science and Man's Nature," Da lus, 94 (Winter 1965), pp. 223-244.
Erikson, Erik, Childhood and Society (New York: Norton Publishing Company, 1963).
Germain, Carel and Alex Gitterman, The Life Model Social Work Pratic (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1980), pp. 5-6.
Hall, Calvin, A Primer of Freudian Psvchology (New York: World Publishing Company, 1954)

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 Lesson 2 Technology Is a Way of Revealing

Objectives:

At the end of the lesson the students must have:

1. Explained the concept and essence of technology as a way of revealing.

2. Identified ways on how technology aided in revealing the truth about the
human being.

Analyze the artwork and the statement below. Reflect how the artwork describes and
reveals technology.

“How do you want to be known, as the discoverer of fire or as the first man to pollute the
atmosphere?”
This lesson explores Heidegger's views on technology in detail. This include a section
dealing with Heidegger's thought on science, in order to understand how science and technology
are related in Heidegger's thought. The focus will be on Heidegger's conception of Das Ge-stel/ as
the manner in which Being manifests itself in the age of technology; and Bestand as Heidegger's
word for 'standing reserve' - the way in which all things including human being are revealed in this
age.

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 The essence of technology is not something we make; it is a mode of being, or
of revealing. This means that technological things have their own novel kind of presence,
endurance, and connections among parts and wholes. They have their own way of presenting
themselves and the world in which they operate.

In our time, technology has become a major concern for us. Every person in our society is
touched by technology. In fact, 'our lives are technologically textured for most waking moments.
We are seduced by the power of technology. We cannot fail to see how its products and processes
have influenced our ways of thinking and acting, indeed, the very character of our lives. Yet,
technology increasingly evokes fear and trepidation in us when we look at the rapid destruction of
the earth's resources and the possibilities for self-destruction that technology has placed in our
hands. Technology seems to have become the central, endangering phenomenon of our times.
Still, many believe that we will find solutions for the crises that we face as a result of our
technological over-zealousness, and that we will find these solutions in technology itself. After all, it
is our technology, one that will surely open up new possibilities to overcome these difficulties. We
are the masters of technology; we cannot allow ourselves to be mastered by it.

According to Heidegger "the essence of technology is by no means

anything technological," he means that technology's driving force is not located in machines
themselves, nor even in the various human activities that are associated with modern modes of
production. He suggests that there are two dominant ways of understanding technology. One is
instrumental, to view it as a means to an end, while the other is to see it as human activity. He
thinks they belong together. For to posit ends and procure and utilize the means to them is a
human activity.
How is technology used as a way of revealing? According to Heidegger, by entering into a
particular relation with reality, reality is 'revealed' in a specific way. And this is
where technology comes in, since technology is the way of revealing that characterizes our
time. Technology embodies a specific way of revealing the world, a revealing in which humans take
power over reality.

Modern technology has paved the way for multi-functional devices like the smartwatch and
the smartphone. Computers are increasingly faster, more portable, and higher-powered than ever
before. With all of these revolutions, technology has also made our lives easier, faster, better, and
more fun. But despites of these, being overly connected can cause psychological issues such as
distraction, narcissism, expectation of instant gratification, and even depression. Beside affecting
users' mental health, use of technology can also have negative repercussions on physical health
causing vision problems, hearing loss, and neck strain.

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 An excerpt from Martin Heidegger’s The Question of Technology
According to ancient doctrine, the essence of
a thing is considered to be what the thing is. We ask
the question concerning technology when we ask what
it is. Everyone knows the two statements that answer
our question. One says: Technology is a means to an
end.
The other says: Technology is a human activity.
The two definitions of technology belong together.
For to posit ends and procure and utilize the means
to them is a human activity. The manufacture and utilization of equipment, tools, and machines, the
manufactured and used things themselves, and the needs and ends that they serve, all belong to
what technology is. The whole complex of these contrivances is technology. Technology itself is a
contrivance, or, in Latin, an instrumentum. The current conception of technology, according to
which it is a means and a human activity, can therefore be called the instrumental and
anthropological definition of technology (Heidegger, 1977).

Technology is in its essence a destiny within the history of Being and of the truth of Being,
a truth that lies in oblivion. As a form of truth technology is grounded in the history of metaphysics,
which is itself a distinctive and up to now the only perceptible phase of the history of Being

In the endless technological drive for efficiency, the earth, its creatures and our fellow
human beings are reduced to the status of raw material - Heidegger's word for this is 'standing
reserve' (Bestand). The world as a whole becomes standing reserve. Now, 'everything is ordered
to stand by, to be immediately on hand, indeed to stand there just so that it may be on call for a
further ordering. For Heidegger, the most dangerous result of this view is that other human beings
also are regarded as 'standing reserve'. In the technological era, 'No longer are individuals
"commanding presences" for each other; they have become disposable experiences that can be
turned on and off like water from a faucet.

Technology is ontologically devastating, because it usurps all other modes of revelation.

With everything standing in reserve for our use, 'distance' disappears. Here, Heidegger is referring
to distance as an existential sense of our proximity to horizons: those between earth and sky,
mortals and immortals. This blurring of borders is the main sign of an unconditioned
anthropomorphism. This is not only an anthropomorphism that objectifies the world in order to
exploit it, but also one that creates the world in its own image, where everything that humankind
comes into contact with becomes an extension of itself.

The danger, therefore, is for Heidegger not the potential physical self-annihilation of
humanity, but rather that intensive technological production will overpower man's capacity for
manifold modes of disclosure. Philosophic thought would be replaced with utilitarian cognition;
artistic creativity would atrophy as a result of endless innovative production, and political action
would be obviated by social engineering. Heidegger's fear is that someday, calculative thinking

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would be accepted and practiced as the only way of thinking. Calculative thinking is that mode of
any type of thought that deals with the quantifiable and the measurable; it is that mode of cognition
that neatly categorizes all of reality into tingly structures. 'Calculation refuses to let anything appear
except what is countable ... Calculative thinking compels itself into a compulsion to master
everything on the basis of the consequential correctness of its procedure. Most disturbing of all is
that technological calculation and innovation may satisfy our material needs and our diminished
spiritual needs to such an extent that we would not even notice what we had lost.

With regards to technology, it is quite evident that Heidegger sees technology contrary to
the usual way of seeing it, because of his connecting technology with revealing. As we have seen,
Heidegger defines truth as unconcealment or revealing, rejecting the idea that truth can be reduced
only to correspondence. The essence of technology is a way of openness to the disclosure of
Being. To forget Being is to lose contact with occasional revelatory events by preoccupation with
concerns about controlling the world. In the first or Greek period, truth was experienced as the
immediate self-presenting of physics, nature in the inclusive sense of the flow of concrete temporal
experience, Le. of history. In the second, or Christian period, truth became certitude guaranteed by
a highest timeless being - God. In the third, modern, post-Cartesian period, this certitude became
guaranteed by the interior self-control of the knowing subject.

Philosophical thinking is now also radically affected by this demand placed on language, in
such a fashion that the transformation of modern philosophy that had begun in the origination of
modern metaphysics now comes explicitly to light. Philosophical thinking becomes the mere
demand for explanations and proofs.

In this lesson, we have shown that when Heidegger speaks of technology, he means much
more than machines. When Heidegger describes the essence of technology, he means a specific
way of revealing. Heidegger is careful to distinguish between the mathematical nature of modern
science and machine technology, but reverses the usual understanding of their relation. For
Heidegger, the term technology involves a particular understanding of the being of human being
and things. This understanding of how beings exist calls for natural science as the appropriate way
of making available the things in the world. Today's science can exist only because nature is
revealed as existing in a technological manner. Heidegger does not suggest that we try to change
or escape modernity, or try to incorporate it into a fuller totality in the Hegelian manner. However,
there is a sense in which modernity and with it technologico-calculative thinking can be 'overcome'.
Heidegger suggests an attitude of Gelassenheit as a possible way in which this can take place,
although Gelassenheit is all but an easy 'solution'. With regards to Gelassenheft, we have
described Heidegger's ideas on the end of philosophy and the thinking that he believes can
overcome the reign of calculative thinking, as well as his suggestions regarding the saving power
of art.

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 1. What is the essence of technology?
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2. How is technology used as a way of revealing?

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3. Is technology a means to an end or an end in itself? Explain.

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4. What did Heidegger suggest to balance the danger of nonstop revealing?

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 Name: __________________________________ Date Accomplished: _________
Course, Year, & Section: ____________________ Remarks: __________________

1. What would have happened to human kind if technology did not exist?

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2. What are some ways on how technology aided in revealing the truth about the human
being?

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3. Is technology dangerous? If not, then what is dangerous?

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M. Heidegger, The Question concerning Technology in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (Revised
and Expanded Edition) (London, Routledge, 1993), p. 333. 2

Heidegger, The Question concerning Technology in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (Revised and
Expanded Edition) (London, Routledge, 1993), p. 318 5

M. Heidegger What is called Thinking? (New York, Harper and Row, 1968), p. 24. 6 M.

Heidegger, The Question concerning Technology in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (Revised and
Expanded Edition) (London, Routledge, 1993), p. 312. 7

H. Dreyfus. Heidegger's History of the Being of Equipment in H. Dreyfus & H. Hall (eds),
Heidegger: A Critical Reader (Cambridge, Blackwell Publishers, 1992), p. 184. 10 M. Heidegger,
The Question concerning Technology in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (Revised and Expanded
Edition) (London, Routledge, 1993), p. 320. 11 Ibid., p. 324. 12 M. Heidegger, Letter on Humanism
in Basic Writings: Martin Heidegger (Revised and Expanded Edition) (London, Routledge, 1993), p.
244.

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 Lesson 3 Human Flourishing and The Good Life

Objectives:

At the end of the lesson the students must have:

1. Explained
a. the risk factors of the happiness pursuit without meaning and virtue.
b. the advantages of a meaning perspective of the good life.
c. The need for a balanced of meaningful life.
2. Examined shared concerns that make up the good life to come up with
innovative, creative solutions to contemporary issues guided by ethical
standards.

People have different ideas of what constitutes the good life. Wrong pursuits may lead to
tragic consequences. Correct pursuits may lead to flourishing. Therefore, be careful what you
dream for. Let’s ponder and reflect on the following question often ask:

 What People want to be healthy?

 What People want to be happy?
 What most things that taste good are probably bad for you?
 What most things that give you a thrill are probably bad for you too?
Everybody wants more happiness and success, right? Then, it’s good to know how to
optimize happiness and success.

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 Aristotle explains that actions are necessarily and fundamentally singular. This implies that
the individual human action of using wealth is what constitute the economic dimension. The
purpose of economic action is to use things that are necessary for life such as sustenance and
survival, and for the Good Life. The Good Life is the moral life of virtue through which human being
attains happiness.
The happiness pursuit becomes one’s ultimate purpose in life. According to the Golden
Rule, happiness pursuit is not guided by a philosophy of life informed by general principles of
meaning, spirituality and virtue.
 Confucius: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do unto others.
 Aristotle: We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to us.
 Buddhism: Hurt not others with that which pains thyself.
 Christianity: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
But what is the common cause? They make personal happiness and success their ultimate
end of life without a moral compass and without the desire to pursue inner goodness.
King Solomon realized the vanity of success long, long ago:
The world will never be enough: “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor
the ear filled with hearing” (Eccl. 1:8).
This means that it takes more and more to reach the same level of happiness—addiction,
money, etc. Nothing in this world can fill the spiritual vacuum within us. Still, this is another
disillusion, dreams are often broken when reality strikes. Bad things happen to good people,
reversal of fortune for some people, most days are bad days (e.g. poverty), these are usually fate
and circumstance we achieve in life as human being in our pursuit of happiness.
Our advantage to the meaning of pursuit able us to avoids the pitfalls of self-centered
pursuit of happiness and success. It sustains us between the highs of inspiration and the lows of
despair, happiness and flourishing will sneak in through the back door, and ability to transform
adversities into opportunities for personal growth.

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 A meaningful, authentic good
life is based on inner goodness.
Aristotle described that
“The end of life is eudemonia.”.
Eudemonia means well-being,
virtue and human flourishing.
To live the good life is to become what we ought to be as human beings—moral agents who strive
for moral excellence.

His moral theory is teleological. Aristotle’s virtue ethics. The golden purpose mean is to
avoid extremes. Practical wisdom: the proper end to our actions and the proper means to our end.
There are four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
Confucius, equates the good life with social harmony.
The need to fit in an ordered society. Five cardinal virtues:
benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness
or loyalty. Inner cultivation of virtues leads to world peace.

But, there is a shift towards good life. A shift from virtue

and ethics to personal happiness and success. For example, an
increase in personal freedom and gross domestic product (GDP).
However, money does not always buy happiness. Do you agree
to this statement?

Is there good life without inner goodness? A morally neutral stand on the good life will lead
to risk factors. We feel good from doing good, We are moral beings living in a moral universe. We
cannot flourish without a moral compass.
Human flourishing comes from or to a larger community of individual. According to Gestalt,
the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
This implies that a good life is requisite of good people
plus good community plus world peace.

However, there are tough times in our life that we

feel down and stressed. Is there good life in tough times?
According Frankl (1985) fing meaning through a heroic
attitude, accepting what cannot be changed., “Every cloud
has a silver lining, transforming adversities through
meaning and faith, reducing stress, depression and anxiety,
and integrating negatives with positives, will renown to self
contentment and satisfaction.

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 To me, the good life is a spiritual life, God is good. The adaptive advantages of religion
and believing in God, a moral compass and answers to the big questions, belief in an Ultimate
Rescuer, hope beyond the grave and significance in mundane activities gives us a meaning-
mindset towards a faith-filled perspective.

The Good life is a balanced life. How do we attain that?

1. A single-minded pursuit is not always beneficial.

2. Active engagement needs to be balanced by rest. Vs
3. Exclusive love needs to be balanced by greater love.
4. Achievement needs to be balanced by acceptance.
5. Self-transcendence needs to be balanced by fair treatment.

Munoz (2014), conducted a simple survey research to find out reasons that makes you
happy. Table 1 show that the top three reseans that makes you happy are family/home (27.7%),
friends/peers/relationship (16.53 %), and career/achievements (11.18 %). This finding corroborate
with Wong’s idea of happiness that achievement, religion/spirituality, positive affect, relationships,
self-transcendence, intimacy, self-acceptance, fair treatment, are the basic needs for mental health
and flourishing.

Table 1. Reasons that makes you happy

Reasons that makes you happy Frequency Sum %

Family/home 30 45 40 35 33 32 40 47 37 339 27.47

Health/Sports 5 6 4 26 1 1 5 8 6 62 5.02
Career /Achievements 14 23 26 3 12 9 13 23 15 138 11.18
Travel 8 5 3 8 0 2 0 4 8 38 3.08
Money 8 13 5 3 6 1 12 10 16 74 6.00
Media 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0.57
Friends/Peers/relationship 20 22 33 38 23 21 22 16 9 204 16.53
Pets 3 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 6 0.49
Supplies/Food/Shelter/Clothing 15 6 8 14 2 14 11 4 11 85 6.89
High Grades/School Performance 6 2 5 4 9 0 0 4 30 2.43
Sleeping/Resting/Peace 4 1 7 3 1 3 0 1 2 22 1.78
Recreation/Leisure/Entertainment 17 16 15 14 15 18 18 4 7 124 10.05
Love of Self/Love/Love Making 1 2 3 0 1 0 0 2 1 10 0.81
Religion/God/Mass/Meditation 0 12 3 6 15 4 11 3 6 60 4.86
Life/Satisfaction/Contentment 0 0 0 12 1 1 4 0 4 22 1.78
Status 2 0 2 1 3 0 1 1 0 10 0.81
Charitable work 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 3 0.24

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 The diagram below shows the Wong’s model of a balanced Good Life.

According to Wong, achievement, religion/spirituality, positive affect, relationships, self-

transcendence, intimacy, self-acceptance, fair treatment are basic needs for mental health and
flourishing – positive Emotion and Well –being.
Readings:
Human Flourishing

Aristotle’s idea of the good is the idea of what is good for the specific entity under
consideration. For whatever has a natural function, the good is therefore thought to reside in the
function. The natural function of a thing is determined by its natural end. With respect to living
things, there are particular ways of being that constitute the perfection of the living thing's nature.

According to Aristotle, there is an end of all of the actions that we perform which we desire
for itself. This is what is known as eudaimonia, flourishing, or happiness, which is desired for its
own sake with all other things being desired on its account. Eudaimonia is a property of one's life
when considered as a whole. Flourishing is the highest good of human endeavors and that toward
which all actions aim. It is success as a human being. The best life is one of excellent human
activity.

For Aristotle, the good is what is good for purposeful, goal-directed entities. He defines the
good proper to human beings as the activities in which the life functions specific to human beings
are most fully realized. For Aristotle, the good of each species is teleological immanent to that
species. A person's nature as a human being provides him with guidance with respect to how he
should live his life. A fundamental fact of human nature is the existence of individual human beings

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each with his own rational mind and free will. The use of one's volitional consciousness is a
person's distinctive capacity and means of survival.

One's own life is the only life that a person has to live. It follows that, for Aristotle, the "good"
is what is objectively good for a particular man. Aristotle's eudaimonia is formally egoistic in that a
person's normative reason for choosing particular actions stems from the idea that he must pursue
his own good or flourishing. Because self-interest is flourishing, the good in human conduct is
connected to the self-interest of the acting person. Good means "good for" the individual moral
agent. Egoism is an integral part of Aristotle's ethics.

Ethics, Virtue, and Self-Interest

In his ethical writings, Aristotle endorses egoism, rationality, and the value of life. He insisted
that the key idea in ethics is a human individual's own personal happiness and well-being. Each
man is responsible for his own character. According to Aristotle, each person has a natural
obligation to achieve, become, and make something of himself by pursuing his true ends and goals
in life. Each person should be concerned with the "best that is within us" and with the most
accomplished and self-sufficient success and excellence.

« The distinction of a good person is to take pleasure in moral

action. In other words, human flourishing occurs when a person is
concurrently doing what he ought to do and doing what he wants
to do. »

According to Aristotle, the "moral" refers to whatever is related to a person's character. He

taught that the value of virtuous activity resides in realizing a state of eudaimonic character. Such a
state must be achieved by a man's own efforts. A person needs to pursue rational or intelligent
efforts in pursuing goods and in otherwise taking control of his own life. Because a man might fail
or be thwarted in his efforts, Aristotle explained that a person should be more concerned with his
fitness to achieve success than with the existential attainment of the success itself.

Aristotle insists that ethical knowledge is possible and that it is grounded in human nature.
Because human beings possess a nature that governs how they act, the perfection or fulfillment of
their nature is their end. A human being is ordered to self-perfection and self-perfection is, in
essence, human moral development. The goal of a person's life is to live rationally and to develop
both the intellectual and moral virtues. There are attributes central to human nature the
development of which leads to human flourishing and a good human life. According to Aristotle, the
key characteristics of human nature can be discerned through empirical investigation. He explains
that the virtuous man is constantly using practical wisdom in the pursuit of the good life. A man
wants and needs to gain a knowledge of virtue in order to become virtuous, good, and happy. The

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distinction of a good person is to take pleasure in moral action. In other words, human flourishing
occurs when a person is concurrently doing what he ought to do and doing what he wants to do.

According to Aristotle, the virtue of prudence is personal, freely pursued, and changeable
according to situations. A prudent action for one individual may not be a prudent action for another
person. Nevertheless, the integration of freely made prudent and varying actions results in social
coordination. He believed that economic coordination is attainable when persons prudently choose
and undertake economic transactions with others. Aristotle believed that human flourishing
requires a life with other people.

Aristotle taught that people acquire virtues (i.e., good habits) through practice and that a set
of concrete virtues could lead a person toward his natural excellence and happiness. Aristotle
viewed economic activity as a means of coordination through which persons would have the
opportunity to obtain the external goods necessary to attain happiness. Morally good habits
promote stable and predictable behavior and foster coordination in an imperfect world. Habits,
natural dispositions created through the repetition of actions, underpin virtues.

Aristotle tells us that virtues, as constituents of happiness, are acquired through habituation.
He also explains that virtue can be understood as a moral mean between two vices - one of excess
and one of deficiency. Such a mean is not scientific or easy to calculate. Aristotle's moral virtues
are desire-regulating character traits which can be found at a mean between extreme vices. For
example, courage is the virtuous mean between rashness as a vice of excess and cowardice as a
vice of deficiency.

With respect to ethical judgments, Aristotle expounds that a person should not expect more
certainty in methods or results than the nature of the subject matter permits. It is obvious then that
Aristotle did not regard ethics as an exact science. His modern critics' explanation of Aristotle's
position on ethical exactness is that it was a consequence of the intrinsicist elements of his
epistemology. Because Aristotle considers universals, concepts, or essences as metaphysical
rather than as epistemological, it is difficult, if not impossible, for him to explain how one sees or
intuits "good," "value," "ethical," and so on when he is confronted with various optional actions or
objects.

Self-Perfection, Self-Direction, and the Limited State

Human flourishing (also known as personal flourishing) involves the rational use of one's
individual human potentialities, including talents, abilities, and virtues in the pursuit of his freely and
rationally chosen values and goals. An action is considered to be proper if it leads to the flourishing
of the person performing the action. Human flourishing is, at the same time, a moral
accomplishment and a fulfillment of human capacities, and it is one through being the other. Self-
actualization is moral growth and vice-versa.

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 To flourish, a man must pursue goals that are both rational for him individually and also as a
human being. Whereas the former will vary depending upon one's particular circumstances, the
latter are common to man's distinctive nature – man has the unique capacity to live rationally. The
use of reason is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for human flourishing. Living rationally
(i.e., consciously) means dealing with the world conceptually. Living consciously implies respect for
the facts of reality. The principle of living consciously is not affected by the degree of one's
intelligence nor the extent of one's knowledge; rather, it is the acceptance and use of one's reason
in the recognition and perception of reality and in his choice of values and actions to the best of his
ability, whatever that ability may be. To pursue rational goals through rational means is the only
way to cope successfully with reality and achieve one's goals. Although rationality is not always
rewarded, the fact remains that it is through the use of one's mind that a man not only discovers
the values required for personal flourishing, he also attains them. Values can be achieved in reality
if a man recognizes and adheres to the reality of his unique personal endowments and contingent
circumstances. Human flourishing is positively related to a rational man's attempts to externalize
his values and actualize his internal views of how things ought to be in the outside world. Practical
reason can be used to choose, create, and integrate all the values and virtues that comprise
personal flourishing.

Virtues are the means to values which enable us to achieve human flourishing and
happiness. The constituent virtues such as rationality, independence, integrity, justice, honesty,
courage, trustworthiness, productiveness, benevolence, and pride (moral ambitiousness) must be
applied, although differentially, by each person in the task of self-actualization. Not only do
particular virtues play larger roles in the lives of some men than others, there is also diversity in the
concrete with respect to the objects and purposes of their application, the way in which they are
applied, and the manner in which they are integrated with other virtues and values. Choosing and
making the proper response for the unique situation is the concern of moral living – one needs to
use his practical reason at the time of action to consider concrete contingent circumstances and to
determine the correct application and balance of virtues and values for himself. Although virtues
and values are not automatically rewarded, this does not alter the fact that they are rewarded.
Human flourishing is the reward of the virtues and values and happiness is the goal and reward of
human flourishing.
Self-direction (i.e., autonomy) involves the use of one's reason and is central and necessary
for the possibility of attaining human flourishing, self-esteem, and happiness. It is the only
characteristic of flourishing that is both common to all acts of self-actualization and particular to
each. Freedom in decision making and behavior is a necessary operating condition for the pursuit
and achievement of human flourishing. Respect for individual autonomy is required because
autonomy is essential to human flourishing. This logically leads to the endorsement of the right of
personal direction of one's life, including the use of his endowments, capacities, and energies.

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 1. Explain this “the end of life is eudemonia”.

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

2. What are the advantages of a meaning perspective of the good life?

______________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

3. What is meaningful life to you? Explain how one attain it?

______________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

4. Examined shared concerns that make up the good life to come up with
innovative, creative solutions to contemporary issues guided by ethical
standards.

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

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 Name: __________________________________ Date Accomplished: _________
Course, Year, & Section: ____________________ Remarks: __________________

1. Make a survey research online on the following topics. Choose only one.

a. What Make You Happy?

b. How You Can Be happier and More Successful?
c. What Makes a Good Life?

Your teacher will give you the format to be used in your survey research. Submit the
finding of your survey as part of your assessment.

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Martin, Drenthen, et.al. (2014). Public Vision of the Human Nature/Relationship and their
implications for environmental ethics

Maboloc, C. R.(2010). Eudemonia and Human Flourishing in Ethics and Human Dignity. Rex
Bookstore pp 15-23

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