Human Flourishing

• Module 2 addresses Science, Technology, Society, and the Human Condition.

Lesson 1: Human Flourishing

• Students should be able to identify different concepts of human flourishing and critique it in relation to science and technology progress, defining the meaning of the good life for themselves.
• Eudaimonia, coined by Aristotle (385-323 BC), means "good spirited;" flourishing is a good human endeavor where success is attained.
• Individuals aim to flourish for happiness, goals, and fulfillment as human beings.
• Aristotle equates mankind's purpose to eudaimonia or happiness: a state of serene, permanent happiness rather than momentary pleasure.
• Actions are judged as good or bad based on their contribution to the life goal.
• Human flourishing arises with power, phronesis, wealth, and friendship, believed by Greek society to bring happiness.
• Today's concept expects humans as global citizens working with institutions for common goals.
• Changes in flourishing concepts have led to seeking comfortable lives through money, products, and exploration.
• Ancient times used simple machines, while developments now create grander machines for innovations in Science and Technology Research and Development.
• Flourishing is described as positive mental health, living within an optimal range connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005).
• The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand describes flourishing as experiencing positive emotions, psychological, and social functioning most of the time.
• Philosophically, it means having access to a pleasant, engaged, and meaningful life requiring character strengths and virtues agreed upon across cultures (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005).
• Flourishing individuals tend to be happy, satisfied, purposeful, feel mastery, accept themselves, and exhibit personal growth with autonomy (Keyes, 2005).

Concepts of Human Flourishing

• Western civilization focuses on the individual, while eastern civilization is community-centric
• For western, it is concerning for an end is primarily more and aims for eudaimonia as the ultimate good, while eastern should individuals sacrifice himself for the sake of society and encourage studies of literature, sciences, and art for a greater cause,
• In addition, aristotelian view vs chinese confucian system japanese bushido

Happiness

• In psychology, happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being, expressed as positive emotions.
• Behaviorists define happiness as a cocktail of emotions when we do something good or positive.
• Neurologists see happiness as a flood of hormones released as a reward for behaviors that prolong survival.

Science, Technology, and Human Flourishing

• Discoveries, innovations, and successes contribute to human knowledge and exploring evolution.
• Goal setting is intertwined with human flourishing, giving a sense of self-importance.

Lesson 2: The Good Life

• Students should be able to define happiness, differentiate moral life, life of pleasure, fulfilled/meaningful/finished life, take a stand regarding the "good life," and recognize ways to attain it.
• People have different ideas of a good life, correct pursuits can lead to flourishing, and wrong pursuits may lead to tragic consequence, remember the GOLDEN RULE of Confucius: Do not do unto others.
• Five ways to understand good life: moral, pleasure, fulfilled, meaningful, and finished (Westacott, 2018).

Moral Life

• A "good life" involves moral approval, being courageous, honest, trustworthy, kind, selfless, generous, helpful, loyal, and principled.
• Socrates claimed that suffering wrong is better than doing wrong.
• Plato believed that a morally upright person enjoys inner harmony, unlike a disharmonious wicked person.

Life of Pleasure

• Epicurus, a Greek philosopher, thought that pleasure is what makes life worth living.
• Hedonism includes devotion to sex, food, sensual indulgence, dominates western culture.
• Living the good life - subjective experiences, recreational pleasures, good food, good wine, scuba diving, etc.
• Epicure appreciates food and drink.

The Fulfilled Life By Aristotle

• Virtue - morally virtuous
• Health - enjoy good health and reasonably long life.
• Prosperity - comfortably off (Aristotle - affluent enough so that they don't need to work for s living doing freely chosen activity)
• Friendship - goodfriends, innately social
• Enjoy respect of others
• Need good luck, common sense
• Exercise tehir unique human abilities and capacities

The Meaningful Life

• Well being of family especially children and grand children
• Pursuing a particular kind of work with great dedication (scientific research, artistic creation, scholarship)
• Devoting themselves to a cause - protecting the environment
• Engagement in a community, church and school

Finished Life

• A life is only able to be judged good after death
• A good life is enviable and admirable

Statements to Ponder

• Good moral leads to the good and happy life the ultimate goal of a good life
• True happiness is found by leading a virtuous life and doing what is worth doing
• Feeling good is not good enough for a good life
• Realize potentialities that would lead to the greatest fulfillment.

Role of Technology in Achieving Good Life

• Technology should support a good life without harming ecosystems or future, compromise the earth's ecosystem or the prospects of later organization
• Technology can enhance communication and alter perceptions of sexuality.

Lesson 3: Technology as a Way of Revealing

• Students should be able to discuss how technology reveals and examine its role in human flourishing.
• Ancient doctrine sees the essence of a thing is what it is.
• Technology is both a means to an end and a human activity, existing as a complex of contrivances or a gadget.
• The instrumental and anthropological definition of technology is current conception (Heidegger, 1997).
• Martin Heidegger urges questioning technology and seeing beyond common understandings.
• Progress of human civilization mirrors science and technology developments.
• The human person, technology bearer and beneficiary, flourishes by giving meaning to their world,
• Science and technology should merit reflective and meditative thinking rather than unconsciously acquire, consuming and destroying the world.
• Appreciate science and technology for functionality and impact on humanity.
• Tools make lives easier for goods, convenience, or knowledge, with medical research curing diseases and preventing illnesses.

The Dangers Of Technology

• Students should discuss the dangers of technology
• Facebook article saying data privacy sandal affected 87 million may be used

Lesson 4: When Technology and Humanity Cross

• Students should know human rights to uphold ethical dilemmas in technology and analyze the human condition to reflect on philosophical ramifications.
• John J. Reilly, Center for Science, Technology, and Values lists the emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology every year.

Dilemmas

• 2018 list:
  • Helix: an app store for reading genomes.
  • BlessU-2 and Pepper: first robot priest and monk.
  • Emotion-Sensing Facial Recognition: software assessing reactions.
  • Ransomware: holding data hostage for ransom.
  • Textalyzer: device analyzing phone use during accidents.
  • Social Credit System: scoring citizens under surveillance.
  • Google Clips: hands-free camera.
  • Sentencing Software: algorithm aiding courts.
  • Friendbot: app storing deceased's digital footprint.
  • Citizen App: notifying users of crimes or events.

Lesson 5: Why the Future Does Not Need Us

• Answer why the future does not need us
• Examine local government for new technologies
• Bill Joy's "Why The Future Doesn't Need Us," Robotics, Genetic engineering and Nanotechnology claims that these 3 technologies are threatening to make humans an endangered species
• Bill Joy argues that 21st century technologies—genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology (GNR)—will extinguish human beings as we now know them, a prospect he finds deeply disturbing I find his arguments deeply flawed and critique each of them in turn.