Stas111 Midterm
Stas111 Midterm
Stas111 Midterm
PHILOSOPHY- The study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as
existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language.
Branches of Philosophy
1. Natural Philosophy
2. Moral Philosophy-
3. Metaphysical philosophy
4.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976)
v German philosopher whose work is associated with phenomology and existentialism.
v His ideas have exerted influence on the development of contemporary European
philosophy.
v His best-known work is Being and Time (1927). He gave a very impressive analysis of
human existence, the prominence of the important themes of existentialism like care,
anxiety, guilt and above all death is brought out here.
v He begins “The Question Concerning Technology” by examining the relationship
between human and technology, a relationship Heidegger calls a free relationship. If this
relationship is free, it opens our human existence to the essence of technology”. This
essence of technology, however, has nothing to do with technology. Rather, as
Heidegger suggests, ‘The essence of a thing is considered to be what the thing is.”
v Heidegger examines two definitions of technology. Firstly, he offers that “Technology is
a means to an end”(Instrumental definition). Secondly, he proposes that “Technology is
a human activity (Anthropological definition).
Doctrine of causality
1. Causa materialis- the material, the matter out of which an object is made.
2. Causa formalis-the form, the shape into which the material enters.
3. Causa efficiens- which brings about the effect that is finished
4. Causa finalis- end
WEEK 8
HUMAN FLOURISHING
Human flourishing is defined as an endeavor to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment
within the context of a larger community of individuals. This also means access to the pleasant
life, the engaged or good life and the meaningful life.
(Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson, 2005), stated that human flourishing requires the
development of attributes and social and personal levels that exhibit character strengths and
virtues that are commonly agreed across different cultures.
According to Aristotle, there is an end of all the actions that we perform which we desire for
itself. Flourishing is the greatest good of human endeavors and that toward which all actions
aim. The good is what is good for purposeful and goal-directed entities. He presented the
various popular conceptions of the best life for human beings; (1) a philosophical life, (2).life of
pleasure and (3) a life of political activity.
Eudamonia means good spirit is a property of one’s life when considered as a whole. It 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. It also implies a divine state of being
that humanity is able to strive toward and possibly reach.
Happiness is “doing well” and” living well”. It is a pleasant state of mind.
Verbally there is a very general agreement; for both the general run of men and people of
superior refinement say that is ( Eudaimonia), and identify living well and faring well with being
happy; but with regard to what ( Eudaimonia) is they differ, and the many do not give the same
account as the wise… (Nicomachean Ethics 1095a17).
Epicurus identifies that the eudaimon life is the life of pleasure maintains that life of pleasure
coincides with the life of virtue. He understands Eudaimonia as a more or less continuous
experience of pleasure and, also freedom from pain and distress. Virtue is only instrumentally
related to happiness.
Socrates believed that virtues such as self-control, justice, courage, wisdom, piety and
related qualities of mind and soul are absolutely crucial if a person is to lead a good and happy
life. Virtues guarantee a happy life Eudaimonia
For Plato, Eudaimonia depends on virtue (arête) which is depicted as the most crucial and
the dominant constituent of euddaimonia.
Pyrrho, founder of Pyrrhonism, a school of philosophical skepticism that places the
attainment of ataraxia (a state of equanimity) as a way to achieve Eudaimonia. Pyrrhonist
practice is for the purpose of achieving epoch.
WEEK 9
The good life
A PUZZLING PROBLEM
• People want to be healthy but many consume junk food
• People want to be happy but many do things that make themselves miserable
• Most things that taste good are probably bad for you.
• Most things that give you thrill are probably bad for you too.
What is the good life?
• People have different ideas of what constitutes the good life.
• Wrong pursuits may lead to tragic consequences.
• Correct pursuits may lead to flourishing.
ARISTOTLE (NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 2:2)
All human activities aim at some good. Every art and human inquiry, and similarly every
action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has
been rightly declared as that at which all things aim.
Nicomachean Ethics and Modern Concepts
Eudaimonia- Eu-good, daimon- spirit= good life
Good life- happiness and virtue
Virtue- intellectual and moral
The 4 Pillar of the Good life
• Health, wealth, love and happiness
THE HAPPINESS PURSUIT
• Everybody wants more happiness and success.
• It’s good to know how to optimize happiness and success.
• There is a wide agreement that happiness is the greatest human good.
RISK FACTORS
• The happiness pursuit becomes one’s ultimate purpose in life.
• The happiness pursuit is not guided by a philosophy of life informed by general
principles of meaning, spirituality and virtue.
Golden Rule
Ø They make personal happiness and success their ultimate end of life without moral
compass and without the desire to pursue inner goodness.
Disillusion- 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)
Ø It takes more and more to reach the same level of happiness- addiction, money etc.
Ø Nothing in this world can fill the spiritual vacuum within us.
Ø Dreams are often broken when reality strikes.
FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCE
Ø Bad things happen to good people
Ø Reversal of fortune
Ø For some people, most days are bad days. ( poverty)
Living an authentic life means living with deep acceptance on the facticity of death resulting to
a life lived-Heidegger
The unexamined life is not worth living for-Socrates
The Holistic Approach
good people, good community and world peace= good life
MATERIALISM
A form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in
nature, and that all things, including mental aspects and consciousness are results of material
interactions.
q The first materialists were the atomists in Ancient Greece.
q Democritus and Leucippus led a school whose primary belief is that the world is made
up of and is controlled by the tiny invisible units in the world called atomos or seeds.
q Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world.
Classification of Materialism
1. Naïve materialism
2. Dialectical materialism
3. Metaphysical materialism
Hedonism
Is a school of thought that argues that the pursuit of pleasure and intrinsic goods are the
primary or most important goals of human life.
Ø A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain) but when having
finally gained that pleasure, happiness remains stationary.
Ø “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.”
Stoicism
§ Another school of thought led by Epicurus.
§ The stoics espoused the idea that to generate happiness, one must learn to distance
oneself and be apathetic.
§ The path to happiness for humans is found in accepting this moment as it presents itself,
by not allowing ourselves to be controlled by our desire for pleasure, or our fear of pain.
THEISM
• The belief in the existence of the Supreme Being or Deities
• Describes the classical conception of God.
• The ultimate basis of happiness is the communication with God
• Monotheism- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism
Humanism
• A school of thought espouses the freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to
legislate his own laws, free from the shackles of a God that monitors and controls.
• Is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human
beings, individually and collectively.
• Refers to nontheistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science
rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.
The Good Life is a Balance Life
ü A single-minded pursuit is not always beneficial.
ü Active engagement needs to be balanced by rest.
ü Exclusive love needs to be balanced by greater love.
ü Achievement needs to be balanced by acceptance.
ü Self-transcendence needs to be balanced by fair treatment.
No one can deny the fact that science and technology has a profound impact on how
modern man thinks and appreciates matter. It can be concretely seen in the present
conditions of man in the society. The desire to feel satisfaction of research and
development through genetic engineering, cloning and the likes opened endless doors
for skeptics.
WEEK 10
When Technology and Humanity Cross
The idea that new technologies can liberate us from the human condition is a fantasy. In
reality, the 21st-cenntury will be all too human.
David Mattin
Humanity
Ø A virtue associated with basic ethics of altruism derived from human
condition ( wikipedia).
Ø According to Confucius, humanity is a” love of people”, if you want to
make a stand, help others make a stand.
Recurrent Collapse
This means that the human condition will reach a kind of statis, either instantly or after
undergoing one or more cycles of collapse regeneration. Human civilization may endure
catastrophes that prevent it from moving beyond a certain level of advancement. It also requires
a carefully calibrated homeostatic mechanism that possesses the level of civilization restricted
within a relatively narrow interval.
Plateau
Human civilization may reach a level of technological advancement beyond which no
further advancement is feasible. Predictions that life span can be greatly increased have
depended in part on the apparent decelerations and plateaus.
Post humanity
People have developed significantly different cognitive abilities, population sizes, body
types, sensory or emotional experiences or life expectancies. Post humanity has established
itself as a label for a form of human existence radically transformed by the most advanced
medical techniques and by the use of biotechnology and nanotechnology for human
enhancement.
Ø Devaluation of humanity
Ø Decrease in demand of human labor
Ø High costs of creation
Ø Ethical issues
Ø Social isolation
Ø Environmental Problems
WEEK 13
Information Age
v Computer Age, Digital Age, New Media Age, Internet Age
v a historic period in the 21st century characterized by the rapid shift from traditional
industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy
based on information technology.
Pre-industrial Age- a time before there were machines and tools to help them perform the
tasks. About 2.5 million years before writing was developed, technology began with the earliest
hominids who used stone tools, which they may have used to start fires, hunt, and bury their
dead. Communications were limited between communities. People used traditional paper and
writing materials, signs or symbols to communicate with each other. For example, Egyptians
used papyrus scrolls. Sumerians used clay tablets, Pre-historic men used hand stencils and
simple geometric shapes to create art on the walls of caves and Johannes Gutenberg invented
the printing press during Renaissance period.
Industrial Age- is a period of history that encompasses the changes in economic and social
organization that began around 1760 in Great Britain and later in other countries, characterized
chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines such as the power loom
and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
Samuel F.B Morse invented the telegraph which became the standard for international
communication with a modified code.
Alexander Graham Bell patent the telephone, an electric tool transmitting analogue speech
along wires.
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, a device for the mechanical recording and
reproduction of sound.
Heinrich Hertz identified and studied radio waves in 1886.
Guiglielmo Marconi developed the first practical radio transmitters and receivers.
Philo Farnsworth invented the first fully electronic television. It became an important mass
medium for advertising, propaganda and entertainment.
Electronic Age began when electronic equipment and large technologies, including
computers came into use. The invention of the transistor ushered in the electronic age. People
harnessed the power of transistors that led to the transistor radio, electronic circuits, and the
early computers. In this age, long distance communication became more efficient.
Information Age-People advanced the use of microelectronics with the invention of personal
computers, mobile devices, and wearable technology. Moreover, voice, image, sound and data
are digitalized. We are now living in the information age.
You tube was created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. It is an online video-
sharing platform. It also allows users to view, upload, share, report, subscribe and comments on
videos.
Facebook Inc. was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow roommates and students. It is a
popular global social networking website. It also offers other products and services such as
Facebook Messenger, Facebook Watch and Facebook Portal.
MacBook is a discontinued Macintosh portable computer developed and sold by Apple Inc. It
includes a Retina display, fanless design and a shallower butterfly keyboard and a single USB-
C port for power and data.
Google LLC is based on multinational technology company that specializes in internet-related
services and products, which include sottware, hardware, online advertising, a search engine
and cloud computing
Microsoft Corporation develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software,
consumer electronics, personal computers and related services.