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Module 4: Technology as a Mode of Revealing It is an instrumental and Human Flourishing in Science and anthropological definition of technology Technology...

Module 4: Technology as a Mode of Revealing It is an instrumental and Human Flourishing in Science and anthropological definition of technology Technology What is technology? Technology is instrumental What is Flourishing? Martin Heidegger -Correct but not true -Pursue true through the correct Where people experience positive Heidegger notes that the root of the emotions, positive psychological word ‘technology’ is techne. Technology as a Mode of Revealing functioning and positive social functioning, most of the time, “living The word techne according to Everything we perceive or think of or within an optimal range of human Heidegger then means a mode of interact with “emerges out of functioning” knowing. concealment into unconcealment”, by entering a particular relation with What is human flourishing? He strongly opposes the view that reality, reality is ‘revealed’ in a specific technology is “ a means to an end” way. An effort to achieve self-actualization or “a human activity.” and fulfillment within the context of a Does the idea that technology is larger community of individuals, each Means to an end/getting things done = poeisis apply to modern with the right to pursue his or her own Instrumental technology? such efforts. Human activity = anthropological Human Flourishing according to Modern Technology Aristotle Technology, according to Heidegger Challenges forth must be understood as “a way of Very aggressive in its activity Human flourishing can be captured by revealing” as it shows so much more Sets or brings about a setting the term eudaimonia. about the person and the world upon It is defined as a contented state of (Heidgger 1977, 12) Expedites unconcealment of being happy, healthy, and prosperous. nature It is also known as "an effort to attain Revealing Stores that which is extracted self-discovery and fulfillment within the from nature setting of society, each with the right to pursue his or her effort to achieve such The translation of the Greek word state." (McNamara, et al. 2020). alètheuein, which means ‘to discover’ - Modern Technology to uncover what was covered over. Age of switches Human Flourishing in the Christian Standing reserve Perspectives Related to this verb is the independent Stockpiling for its own sake Human person can as both the bearer noun alètheia, which is usually and beneficiary of science and translated as “truth’, through Enframing technology. Heidegger insists that a more Ways of revealing modern adequate translation would be technology Human flourishes and finds meaning in “un-concealment”. In Heidegger’s Views nature as orderable the world that he/she builds. paper, he urges us to question and calculable system of technology and see beyond peoples information In the pursuit of a good life, human common understanding of it. Conceals poiesis may unconsciously acquire, consume Modern physics is the herald or destroy what the world has to offer. The essence of a thing is of enframing considered what the thing is Science and Technology must be We ask the question Why is technology not a human treated as part of human life that concerning technology when activity? needs reflective and meditative we ask what it is. thinking. According to Heidegger, there is something wrong with the modern Reflective thinking How can technology be ‘a way of technological culture we live in today. Meditative thinking revealing’? The ‘age of technology’ reality can only To be able to appreciate the fruits of Common understanding of Technology be present as a raw material (as a science and technology they must be ‘standing reserve’) examined not only for their function -Means to an end and instrumentality but also for the -Human activity Understanding of ‘being’, according to greater impact on humanity as a -Practical application of science Heidegger, is to be seen as the whole. ultimate danger The technological way of revealing - Though we have consigned was not chosen by humans technology as a tool, it belongs to the realm of truth Our understanding of the world - our as a way of revealing understanding of ‘being’, of what it - Technology as something that means ‘to be’ - develops through the defines what we do science is aition ages - Though enframing happens, it cannot snuff out the poetic Humans will also interpret themselves character of technology as raw materials Modern technology views the Earth as a huge gas station representative of Every attempt to climb out of the extraction, drilling and rape of the technology throws us back in Mother Nature Does the idea that technology is The waste land grows. Woe to him poeisis apply to modern who harbors the wasteland. Our earth technology? is not an earth of calculation. If this remains such, only God can save us. -Friedrich Nietzsche Human Person Swallowed by Technology The essence of technology is nothing technological Arts as a Way out of Enframing Nature is art par excellence Nature is the most poetic Technology is poetic in the primordial experience There is a difference between technology and modern technology Primordial - you intend to use it for its instrumentality It is in questioning that we build a way. Questioning is the piety of thought. Piety so radically distinct from the stance of control Technology is normally thought of that which solves problems, but Heidegger asserted that it is something we must question The Greek experience of cause is aition, indebtedness, not cause and effect E.g., I am indebted to the Sun not because the sun is the cause of energy on Earth. Aition is responsible for bringing forth Module 5: consumer research. Human Flourishing as Reflected in Progress and Development People sense there is something wrong with the dominant model of economic progress and they hungry How do we know that we are for an alternative narrative. progressing? What are the indicators of development? More The problem is that the pundits. often than not, development is Promoting this kind of transition are equated with growth and greater using the wrong language. They use consumption. The more that a terms such as de-growth, zero growth or worst of all de-developement. Which population is able to consume, the are technically accurate but off-putting wealthier it is. Likewise, the more for everyone who’s not ready for that a person is able to buy stuff, board. Such terms are repulsive the higher he/she is on the because they run against the deepest development scale. frames we use to thing about human progress, and indeed, this purpose of Growth has been the main object of life itself. It’s like asking people to stop development for the past 70 years, moving positively thorough life, to stop despite the fact that it is not working. learning, improving, growing. Orthodox economists insist that all we need is yet more growth. More Perhaps we might take a cue from progressive types tell us that we need Latin Americans, who are organizing to shift some of the yields of growth alternative visions around the from the richer segment of the indigenous concept of buenvivir, or population to the poorer ones, evening good living. The west has its own things out a bit. tradition of reflection on the good life and its time we revive. At current levels of average global consumption, we’re overshooting our Robert and Edward Skidelsky take planet’s bio-capacity by more than us down this road in his book, how 50% each year. much is enough? Where they lay out the possibility of interventions such as In other words, growth isn’t an option banning advertising, a shorter working anymore – we’ve already grown too week and a basic income, all of which much. Scientists are now telling us that would improve our lives while reducing were blowing past planetary consumption. boundaries at breakneck speed. And the hard truth is that this global crisis is Either we slow down voluntarily or due almost entirely to climate change will do it for us. We overconsumption in rich countries. cant go on ignoring the law of nature. But rethinking our theory of progress is Economist James Hickel argues that not only an ecological imperative, it is instead of pushing poorer countries to also a development one. If we do not “catch up” with rich ones, we should act soon, all our hard – won gains thinking to get rich countries to “catch against poverty will evaporate, as food down” to more appropriate level of system collapse and mass famine re – development. We should look at emerges to an extent not seen since societies where people live long and the 19th century. happy lives relatively low levels of income consumption not as basket This is not about giving up. And it’s cases that need to be developed certainly now about living a life of towards western models, but as voluntary misery or imposing harsh exemplars of efficient living. limits on human potential on contrary, it’s about reaching a higher level of In light of this, perhaps we should understanding and consciousness regard such countries not as about we’re doing here and why. underdeveloped, but rather as appropriately developed. And maybe we need to start calling on rich countries to justify their excesses The idea of “de-developing” rich countries might be prove to be a strong rallying cry in the global south. But it will be tricky to sell to westerners. Tricky, but now impossible. According to recent