LESSON 1.

HUMAN FLOURISHING

OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Analyze the human condition in order to deeply reflect and express philosophical
ramifications that are meaningful to the student as a part of society;
2. Critique 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.

CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND
With the emergence of the Environmental crisis brought by new technologies that change
social structures, students should be given an opportunity to reflect on those issues that have a
significant impact on society. This course will reinforce the integral development of learners to
become truly human.
This lesson deals with interactions between science and technology and social, cultural,
political, and economic contexts that shape and are shaped by them. (CMO No. 20, series of 2013)
This interdisciplinary lesson engages students to confront the realities brought about by science
and technology in society. Such realities pervade the personal, the public, and the global aspects
of our living and are integral to human development. Scientific knowledge and technological
development happen in the context of society with all its socio-political, cultural, economic, and
philosophical underpinnings at play. This lesson seeks to instill reflective knowledge in the
students that they can live a good life and display ethical decision making in the face of scientific
and technological advancement.
The progress of human civilizations throughout history mirrors the development of
science and technology. The human person, as both the bearer and beneficiary of science and
technology, flourishes and finds meaning in the world that he/she builds. In the person’s pursuit of
the good life, he/she may unconsciously acquire, consume or destroy what the world has to offer.
It is thus necessary to reflect on the things that truly matter. Science and technology must be taken
as part of human life that merits reflective and –as the German philosopher Martin Heidegger says
–meditative thinking. Science and technology, despite its methodical and technical nature, gives
meaning to the life of a person making his/her way in the world.
To be able to appreciate the fruits of science and technology, they must be examined not
only for their function and instrumentality but also for their greater impact on humanity as a
whole. The various gadgets, machines, appliances, and vehicles are all tools that make human
lives easier because they serve as a means to an end. Their utility lies on providing people with a
certain good, convenience, or knowledge. Meanwhile, medical research employs the best
scientific and technological principles to come up with the cures for diseases and ways to prevent
illnesses to ensure a good quality of life.

What is flourishing?

It is a state where people experience positive emotions, positive psychological functioning

and positive social functioning, most of the time, “living within an optimal range of human
functioning”.

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 What is Human Flourishing?

Human
flourishing is defined 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 such efforts.

It 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.

Human Flourishing in Science Technology

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Must be treated as part of human life that needs reflective and meditative thinking.

What is reflective thinking?

It helps to determine an individual’s strengths and weaknesses by allowing individuals to

question values and beliefs, challenge assumptions, recognize biases, acknowledge fears, and find
areas of improvement.

Example: a.) Think about what happened. Learn from the experience; that’s reflective
thinking b) An example Have you ever missed the bus and then thought next time I’ll leave the
house 5 minutes earlier? This is an example of you being reflective: you thought about an
experience and decided to learn from it and do something different the next time.

What is Meditative thinking?

Kind of thinking that thinks the truth of being that belongs to being and listens to it. And
also, it helps us to understand our life’s meaning, placing significance on the individual rather
than the collective. When we “meditate,” we consider our being, our singular truths, and the
meaning of our lives. We, subsequently, develop a self-derived kind of meaning, a real kind of
truth.

Why is human flourishing important?

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 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.

Technology as a Mode of Revealing

First, 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.

Understanding Heidegger Technology

In his important work, The Question of Technology, Martin Heidegger urges us to
question technology and see beyond people’s common understanding of it.
Who is Martin Heidegger?

Figure 8. Photo of Martin Heidegger

MARTIN HEIDEGGER, a German philosopher and a seminal thinker in the Continental
tradition of philosophy, widely acknowledged to be one of the most original and important
philosophers of the 20th century.

HEIDEGGER’S VIEW ON TECHNOLOGY

Martin Heidegger strongly opposes the view that technology is “a means to an end” or “a
human activity. They said that these two approaches, which he calls, respectively, the
“instrumental” and “anthropological” definitions, are indeed “correct”, but do not go deep enough;
as he says, they are not yet “true.” He also, points out, technological objects are means for ends,
and are built and operated by human beings, but the essence of technology is something else
entirely. Since the essence of a tree is not itself a tree, he points out, so the essence of technology
is not anything technological. What, then, is technology, if it is neither a means to an end nor a
human activity? Technology, according to Heidegger must be understood as “a way of revealing”
(Heidegger 1977, 12).

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What is revealing?
Revealing is his translation of the Greek word alètheuein, which means ‘to discover’ – to
uncover what was covered over. Related to this verb is the independent noun alètheia, which is
usually translated as “truth,” though Heidegger insists that a more adequate translation would be
“un- concealment.” What is reality?
According to Heidegger, it is not given the same way in all times and all cultures (Seubold
1986, 35-6). It is not something absolute that human beings can ever know once and for all is
relative in the most literal sense of the word – it exists only in relations inaccessible for human
beings. As soon as we perceive or try to understand it, it is not ‘in itself’ anymore, but ‘reality for
us.’

ACTIVITY 1

Instruction: Complete the table below based on your own perception.

Know-Want-Learn
What are the things you already Know, what you Want to learn and what you have
learned from the topics above?
Know Want Learned

What does Heidegger mean when he says that technology is “a way of revealing”?

Everything we perceive or think of or interact with “emerges out of concealment into

unconcealment, by entering into a particular relation with reality, reality is ‘revealed’ in a specific
way; a) Technology is the way of revealing that characterizes our time.
b) technology embodies a specific way of revealing the world, a revealing in which humans take
power over reality. While the ancient Greeks experienced the ‘making’ of something as ‘helping
something to come into being’ – as Heidegger explains that modern technology is rather a ‘forcing
into being’. Technology reveals the world as raw material, available for production and
manipulation.

WHY IS TECHNOLOGY NOT A HUMAN ACTIVITY?

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 According to Heidegger, there is something wrong with the modern, technological culture
we live in today. In our ‘age of technology’ reality can only be present as a raw material (as a
‘standing reserve’). This state of affairs has not been brought about by humans; the technological
way of revealing was not chosen by humans. Rather, our understanding of the world - our
understanding of ‘being’, of what it means ‘to be’ - develops through the ages. In our time ‘being’
has the character of a technological ‘framework’, from which humans approach the world in a
controlling and dominating way. Every attempt to climb out of technology throws us back in. The
only way out for Heidegger is “the will not to will”. We need to open up the possibility of relying
on technologies while not becoming enslaved to them and seeing them as manifestations of an
understanding of being.

ACTIVITY 2

Instruction: Read and follow the statements enclosed in the box.

Watch the video on “The Magician’s Twin”: CS LEWIS AND THE Case Against
Scientism. Answer the following guide questions.

What is scientism?
How is science comparable to magic?
Why is science more dangerous than magic?
What is the presented essence of modernity and its consequence? What do we need
for the science to be good?

ACTIVITY 3

Instructions: Read this article: Forget 'developing' poor countries, it's time to 'dedevelop' rich
countries. Make a Reflection Paper.

Guide Questions for Reflection:

1. Why must we change our paradigm of growth and consumption to that of dedevelopment?
2. What are the terms de-development, de-growth, and zero growth seemingly unacceptable to
the usual framework of human progress?
3. How have we been enframed by the notion of growth?
4. How do we improve our lives and yet reduce consumption?
5. What are the similarities and differences between Heidegger’s and Hickel’s article?

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REFERENC
ES
https://www.coursehero.com/file/44187812/STS-CHAPTER-4-pdf/

https://www.slideshare.net/memijecruz/human-flourishing-in-science-andtechnology-technology-
as-a-mode-of-revealing

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionalsnetwork/2015/sep/23/developing-
poor-countries-de-develop-richcountries-sdgs

http://existentialismatrhodes09.blogspot.com/2009/09/meditative -thinking-more- important-

than.html

McNamara, D. J. et. al. Human Flourishing as Reflected in Progress and

Development. C & E Publishing

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