STS And The Human Condition PDF

STS AND THE HUMAN CONDITION  The Human Person Flourishing in Terms of Science and Technology Start –Up Activity: –Describe the HUMAN PERSON..MAN’S ROLE IN THE UNIVERSE, GIFT OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE MEANS OF FULFILLING YOUR ULTIMATE DESTINY..  THE ESSENCE OF TECHNOLOGY IS...

STS AND THE HUMAN CONDITION  The Human Person Flourishing in Terms of Science and Technology Start –Up Activity: –Describe the HUMAN PERSON..MAN’S ROLE IN THE UNIVERSE, GIFT OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE MEANS OF FULFILLING YOUR ULTIMATE DESTINY..  THE ESSENCE OF TECHNOLOGY IS BY NO MEANS ANYTHING TECHNOLOGICAL- Martin Heidegger  Question: HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY CHANGES US AND THE WORLD AROUND US?  1. MAKES WORK EASIER… 2. CURES DISEASES ( ADVANCEMENT IN MEDICAL HEALTH) 3. FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY 4. COMMUNICATION AND TRAVEL 5. EXPANDS OUR KNOWLEDGE 6. ENTERTAINMENT, LEISURE ETC. “TECHNOLOGY HAS ALWAYS BEEN A DOUBLE –EDGE SWORD” IT EMPOWERS BOTH OUR CREATIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE NATURE.  Some Consequences of TECHNOLOGY Technology that ease our labor can detach us from the meaningful sense of WORK. Consider the human body as an object that can be engineered, modified and immortalized.  Creates an atmosphere of indifference and distance between ourselves and people near us.  Basic principles of morality and ethics should not change as a result of new technologies. What does Human Flourishing means? It 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 an effort.  Human Flourishing encompasses the uniqueness, dignity, diversity, freedom, happiness, freedom, and holistic well-being of individual.. It is a life-long existential journey of hopes, achievements, sufferings, regrets, losses, illnesses and coping.  Nature and Dignity of Human Person Humans have a DIVINE ORIGIN. Human Person and Human Body are DIVINE GIFT deserving unconditional RESPECT. Humans are ENDOWED with REASON by GOD.  God endowed human with REASON 1. as a means to communicate with one another 2. to strive after TRUTH 3. to care for His CREATION  KARL MARX-revolutionary Socialist Humans are naturally SOCIAL BEINGS.. To achieve TRUE Human Flourishing, an individual must first overcome the different mechanisms of ALIENATION.  What is ALIENATION? The estrangement of humans from aspects of human nature(set of vital drives and tendencies that man expresses )  ARISTOTLE Each man has a PURPOSE in LIFE and the FUNCTION of one’s life is to ATTAIN that purpose.  What is the PURPOSE of life? 1. EARTHLY HAPPINESS 2. FLOURISHING How do we achieve this purpose? It could be achieve through REASON and ACQUISITION OF VIRTUE. Each Human should use his ABILITIES to the FULLEST POTENTIAL and should obtain HAPPINESS and ENJOYMENT through the exercise of their REALIZED CAPACITIES.  HUMAN BEINGS have natural DESIRE and CAPACITY to KNOW and UNDERSTAND the TRUTH, to pursue MORAL EXCELLENCE, and to instantiate their IDEALS in the WORLD through ACTION.  TECHNOLOGY AS A WAY OF REVEALING Technology is therefore no mere means. It is a way of revealing. If we heed to this, then another whole realm for the essence of technology will open itself up to us. It is the realm of revealing that is the truth- Martin Heidegger.  Our Technological relationship with nature BEFORE: AS STEWARDS OF NATURE NOW: AS MASTER AND SLAVE  Two Ways of Understanding Technology 1. INSTRUMENTAL – as a means to an end-rest on the view of causality, the material, the form, the end and its effect.. AS A HUMAN 2 ACTIVITY- anthropological view of technology.  Technology is a way of Revealing Instrumentality is a fundamental characteristic of technology. Technology comes to presence in the realm where revealing and unconcealment take place, where TRUTH happens. Traditional View of Technology MACHINES TECHNICAL PROCEDURE Understanding Technology based on Essence- Heidegger 1. Technology is not something we make ; it is a mode of being or revealing- i.e,technological things have their own novel kind of presence, endurance, and connections among parts and whole.  Revealing as used by Heidegger is TRUTH, about the relationship of human and the world. Revealing is more than just knowledge but embraces all the ways in which we relate to the things of the world. Humans are not just pure knowers. We have lives, goals , desires, personalities and a position in history that play a role in determining how we relate to the object around us.  Technology even holds 2. sway over beings that we don’t normally think of as technological such as Gods and history. Emotion is also a way of revealing. 3.The essence of technology Heidegger discusses is primarily a matter of modern and industrial technology. The essence of technology is revealed in Factories and industrial processes.  Technology is not simply the practical application of natural science, instead modern science can understand nature in the characteristically scientific manner only because nature has already in advance, come to light as a set of calculable, orderable force.  Two Characteristics of Modern Technology as a Revealing Process.Mode of revealing of 1 modern technology is CHALLENGING.- it is putting to nature the unreasonable demand that it supplies energy which could be extracted and stored.  Nature reveal itself in modern technology as things of manipulation, as man needs, he will use it. “Artificial ordering”  CHALLENGES OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY 1.TO APPROACH NATURE AS AN “OBJECT OF RESEARCH” TO REVEAL 2. ORDER THE REAL AS STANDING RESERVE  ENFRAMING The essence of modern technology Means gathering together of the setting-upon that sets upon man,i.e., challenges him forth to reveal the actual, in the mode of ordering , as standing reserve.  What is the problem with modern technology? Ordering the world as a pure resource that require to see everything in the light of scientific mind ,that is looking at the world as calculable coherence of forces. Looking the world as a resource dominates the consciousness of humanity.  The objects of the world can be appreciated aesthetically, poetically, religiously and all these modes of revealing are also truth.  Seeing the world as calculable coherence of forces makes us mere calculators destined to keep exploiting reality. It is the ability to reveal nature that gives human their dignity.  To be richer in spirit we have to experience a greater variety of TRUTH. What is the real Problem in technology? The dominance of TECHNOLOGICAL way of REVEALING.  We can go away with this dominance by recognizing that this way of relating to the world is just one way of relating to the world. We should let nature reveals itself by alternate ways of revealing. THANK YOU