MODULE 4 75

Technology as a Way of Revealing

HOW TO LEARN FROM THIS MODULE

Here’s a simple guide for you in going about the module:
1. Read and follow the instructions carefully.
2. Read each lesson and do all the activities provided for you.
3. Perform all the activities diligently to help and guide you in understanding the topic.
4. Take the Learning Activities after each lesson to determine how well you understood
the topic.
5. Answer the Assessment Task at the end of the module to measure how much you have
gained from the lessons. You may answer it via the online link provided or write your
answers on a sheet of paper that you can physically submit, or you may take a picture
of your answers and send it via messaging platforms with which you agreed with your
instructor during the class orientation.

INTRODUCTION

Technology is basically the way we execute the discoveries of science and

blend it with our own needs. Technology is a general term used to refer to the
different tools, machines and equipment we use in everyday life. These tools and
equipment have been invented by man to make the tasks faster, easier and more
comfortable. In this module, the human condition before the Common Era will be
discussed and the changes that happened in human condition as science and
technology progresses. It will also discuss Heidegger’s thought on science, in order
to understand how science and technology are related.

After completing the module, you should be able to answer the following:
 How technology relieved in changing people’s way of life?
 How science and technology interrelates with the attainment of good life
among individuals?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, the learner should be able to:

o Explain the concept of human condition before science and technology;

o Identify the change that happened in human condition after science
and technology;
o Name ways on how technology aided in revealing the truth about the
human being; and

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o Analyze the human condition in order to deeply reflect and express

philosophical ramifications that are meaningful to the student as a part
of society.

LEARNING CONTENT

“Generation Gap” is attributed mainly to the changes brought about by

technology. Though the main idea why technology progresses are to help everyone
in their daily living, there are still individuals who are not comfortable in using various
types of technological products. Especially among some of those who belong to the
older generation, they think that these technologies are too complicated to operate.
They have been used to the simple living in the past and these available
technological devices, though very appealing are a difficult puzzle to them. But these
should not be a major worrisome on technological advancement instead, a challenge
to everyone especially the younger generation to take the older generation to an
exciting journey in science and technology. Because of the availability of modern
technology, everyone can experience what it is like to live with ease and comfort.
The fascination to science and technology has started long ago in the past.
And this fascination has led to numerous magnificent discoveries and inventions that
becomes the foundation of what people today are benefitting and enjoying. The way
human flourishing was defined maybe viewed differently from generations to
generations because of the environmental condition they lived in from period to
period. These also affect how their society works on the construct of human
flourishing. However, there may be interplay of different factors of human flourishing
as time goes by but it is mainly brought by the advancement of science and
technology.

LESSON 1. The Human Condition Before the Common Era

Discoveries and massive invention for community development started with

increased needs of human beings way back the primal age. It is difficult to determine
what specific period of which technology has started but it is thought through the
notion of humans to make life easier that technology and advancement begin to rise.
Way back the primal period, basic technology has been evident. Homo erectus
began to use fire to cook their friction through friction and heat (chipping of stones to
create spark). While the Homo sapiens during the Stone Age sharpen stones to
make knife (a sample of simple machine called wedge). The culture and way of living
of the earliest people was conceived through drawings and carvings inside caves
and unearthed artifacts from various parts of the world.
From maximizing the use of stones, people tend to discover minerals and
began forging metalwork. Metals have substances that are more durable, malleable
and have more luster than the previous material. In terms of clothing, fur and animal
skin were used primarily to withstand extreme weather conditions. Moreover, our
ancestors were also inclined with the liking of a shiny stone or perfectly shaped bone
as a trophy to proudly show off their hunt.
But apparently, does people in the past were also concerned about their
social standing and stratification? How about the meaning of life? Were they also

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curious on finding explanations to certain phenomena? Archaeologist and

anthropologists had excavated several figures thought to be from the latter Stone
Age period that are for ceremonial purposes. These figures mean that the people of
that time perhaps use these to honor some deity. The people often resort to make
sense of events happening outside their control. Things they encounter in their daily
living has been their initial roll of primitive gods hence, different tribes has different
honoured gods. Example, most people in the mountains honor gods for bountiful
hunt while those in the coastal areas have water gods to bless them with good catch.
Eventually, prior civilizations shared the sun as their generic god.

Like the people today, it can be inferred that our ancestors also found the
need to explain things in a way that makes sense to them especially to events that
are outside of their control and the work of supernatural being has been their
commonly used justification to explain these things.

LESSON 2. The Human Condition in the Common Era

The earliest date of human extinction occurred over 12, 000 years ago
possibly due to hunting and territorial disputes and natural disasters. The so called
“sixth extinction” or the Halocene extinction (anthropocene extinction) occurred from
as early as between 100, 000 to 200, 000 years up to the present. Due to human
activity, the extinction of several species both flora and fauna is on-going and
increasing. The growing population has necessitated the people to look for more
resources and to quickly find ways and means to survive. However, these lead to
overhunting and overfishing including massive cultivation of terrains causing several
species to lose their territory and food resources. Increasing number of communities
had forced humans to expand more on territory hence, more people to feed. Even
though people were at most self-sufficient, they were in constant need of resources.
To ensure their territory people in the past tend to wage wars to other tribes and
communities as their solution but then the people began to engage in a peaceful
negotiation to have less bloodshed. This led to the emergence of trade and barter
paving the way to crosstown and cross-cultural interactions as more products were
exchanged.
With this, people began to create another objective to gather products as
much as possible to cater the people’s increasing needs and wants. Wealth has now
been one of their goals and perceived that those who have many live comfortably
and thus generally happier than those who do not have much. Therefore, people
began to hunt, farm and produce things with the prospect of having larger profit. An
increasing number of people in the community with depleting resources have led
them to become reliant to other communities in order to sustain their living. In return,
these communities have to make use of their current resources twice as much to
provide for other communities’ needs. Products of every kind were exchanged
ranging from the most necessary ones such as food products and clothing materials
up to metals, accessories, weapons, spices, literature and entertainment. Those who
cannot sell products may use their skills and were compensated to buy their
necessities. As time goes by, humanity became more complex and the primary goal
was not only to survive but to live a good life.

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In searching for a good life, technology has been largely instrumental. People
were able to develop ways to have easier, more comfortable and more enriching life.
The means to survive make death as the least perceived among humans.
Unpleasant and concocted potions to ward off evil from their kinsmen were executed
by the ancient people. Medicines has been apparently given notice including
alchemy of which people tend to be fixated with gold and the adamant to procure
more and trying to use the element lead to produce more gold. And this paved way
to the emergence of the earliest forms of chemistry in its primitive form not quite
distinct to alchemy.
With time and continuous increased of communities and different races,
beliefs, and abundance of territory/ resources, wars are being waged therefore,
communities also include allocation of their resources to organizing their armed
forces. The early leaders are supposed to be those who portrayed exceptional
strength in the group and still carried on for many generations. It was valued most
the physical strength of a human being but there are also many figures that are
intellectually gifted. These innovators were primarily the ones behind discoveries and
triumphs of these civilizations.
Please click/ visit the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch
Find time to the video clip Life:
Then and Now using the given ?v=a-UBSp5BJno
link.

READ

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Let’s Dig Deeper!

(Lesson Check – Up)

Determine notable comparisons of the following of human condition then and now:
1. Mortality Rate
2. Average Lifespan
3. Literacy Rate
4. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Submit your output through word or pdf format at _______________.

LESSON 2. Heidegger: The Question Concerning Technology

Martin Heidegger is a German philosopher and a seminal thinker in the

continental tradition of philosophy. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most
original and important philosophers of the 20th century. He wrote an essay entitled
“The Question Concerning Technology” which addresses modern technology and its
essence as an instrumental way of revealing the world. In his essay he doesn’t

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merely describe technology in traditional view as machines

and technical procedures. Heidegger’s understanding of
technology was based on its essence.

Heidegger’s View on the Essence of Technology

1. Technology is not something we make; it is a mode
of being or of revealing. Technological things have
their own way of presenting themselves with their
presence, endurance; connections as parts and as a
whole in the world they operate.
2. People do not normally think of as technological, Fig.4.1 Martin Heidegger. Source:
https://thegreatthinkers.org/heidegger/
such as gods and history.
3. It is primarily a matter of modern and industrial
technology. Heidegger is less concerned with the ancient and old tools and
techniques that antedate modernity; the essence of technology is revealed in
factories and industrial processes, not in hammers and plows.
4. Technology is not simply the practical application of natural science. Instead,
modern natural 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 forces – that is to say, technologically.
Heidegger’s Two Characteristics of Modern Technology as a Revealing Process
1. The mode of revealing modern technology is challenging.
- Things are revealed of brought forth by challenging or demanding them. It
is putting to nature the unreasonable demand that it supply energy that
can be extracted and stored. It sees nature as an object manipulation and
not anymore as autonomous reality demanding respect and admiration.
The network of things is now reduced into the network of manipulation.
Example:
a. Mining technology of today wherein nature was at risk of supplying
increased demand of sourcing out energy.
b. Flower blossoming and fading as a nature’s way of revealing
2. Modern technology as a revealing process is that of challenging, which bring
forth the energy of nature as “expediting.” Expediting- means to hasten the
movement of something. It is also a process of revealing inasmuch as it
“unlocks” and “exposes” something.
- Things that are revealed in an expedited manner are brought forth as
resources that must be used efficiently. For example in mining, man digs
coal not simply to know what coals are but man wants to use them. To be
used as man’s source of energy, truckloads of land were mined to produce
coals. It shows that coals are there “for” something and this is the
characteristic of the things revealed in modern technology.
Heidegger uses a technical word to name the things that are revealed in
modern technology as “standing in reserve.” Things as standing in reserve are not
“objects.” Objects, on the other hand, are things that “stand against us” as things
with autonomy. They are revealed mainly in human thinking and do not allow further
manipulations. Things as standing in reserve, on the other hand, are called to come
forth in challenging and expediting. They are reduced into the objectlessness of

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modern technology. Nothing anymore “stands against us” as objects of autonomy

and wonder. Everything is regressed into an interlocking of things that yield what
man wants whenever he demands them to do so. Even nature is now revealed as
standing in reserve and not anymore objects of autonomy.
Unlike the modern technologies, the old technology still respects nature as an
object of autonomy. The modern and the old technologies are of different modes of
revealing, the former, artificial and the latter, natural. Take for example, the contrast
between how the modern technology of hydropower plant and the old technology of
a wooden bridge reveal the presence of a river. The hydropower plant reveals the
river that supplies it energy simply as another thing standing in reserve. It is a source
of energy that completes the interlocking of things in the system of hydropower
generation. The river is not anymore seen as an object with autonomy but an object
on call to be used. Conversely, the technology of building a wooden bridge reveals
the river not as a key link in completing the bridge; rather it respects it as a part of
nature, a “landscape,” using Heidegger’s own term, that is somewhat permanent and
stand against us as another entity. We move “around” it so to say, and we only see
what we can do to overcome its dominating presence; in another words, we do not
manipulate it, but rather, we act according to its rules.
Heidegger’s “En-framing as the Essence of Modern Technology”
What is En-framing?
-simply means putting into the frame of modern technology is the network of
interlocking things standing in reserve. It is the world centered or man’s caprices and
demands. It is a world of manipulation and demystification and here, nothing is
mysterious anymore.
En-framing is what Heidegger is afraid of, that the process of truth will reveal
to the realm of erring. It must be remembered that for truth to be, it must retain its
sense of mystery. Truth is for the most part untruth and to disregard this essentially
limited process, revelation is also to disregard the entirety of its essence. We cannot
have absolute knowledge of reality, more so, we cannot have full dominance over it.
As they say, we are only “guardians” of creation.
We may not literally admit it but nature is on the verge of destruction largely
because of man’s domineering attitude and arrogance. Man thinks he knows how
nature works and tends to hasten or “expedite” its processes. Nature’s flow was
disrupted because man demands too much from it. And we all know that nature is
beyond man’s control but definitely the one that control us. Nature has its way to turn
against us in a manner we cannot perceive.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2. It’s time to Reflect

(Lesson Check – Up)
Do you agree with martin Heidegger in his idea that technology
should only be seen as one of the approaches in perceiving truth? What are other
possible approaches we should consider? Submit your output via _____________.

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Rubric for Expository Essay

Exemplary
Criteria Proficient (4) Emerging (3) Developing (2)
(5)
Introductory The introduction is The introduction clearly The introduction There is no clear
paragraph inviting, states the states the main topic and states the main topic, introduction of the
main topic and previews the structure of the but does not main topic or
previews the paper, but is not particularly adequately preview structure of the
structure of the inviting to the reader. the structure of the paper. Does not
paper. Includes all Includes all necessary paper nor is it include all the
necessary elements elements of an introductory particularly inviting to necessary
of an introductory paragraph. the reader. Does not elements of an
paragraph. include all the introductory
necessary elements of paragraph.
an introductory
paragraph.

Body paragraphs Details are placed in Details are placed in a Some details are not Many details are
organization a logical order and logical order, but the way in in a logical or not in a logical or
the way they are which they are presented/ expected order, and expected order.
presented effectively introduced sometimes this distracts the There is little sense
keeps the interest of makes the writing less reader. Supportive that the writing is
the reader. interesting. Supportive sentences do not organized.
Supportive sentences sentences clarify and always clarify and Supportive
clarify and explain explain the topic sentence explain the topic sentences do not
the topic sentence sentence clarify and explain
the topic sentence

Focus on Topic There is one clear, Main idea is clear but the Main idea is The main idea is
(Content) well-focused topic. supporting information is somewhat clear but not clear. There is
Main idea stands out general. there is a need for a seemingly
and is supported by more supporting random collection
detailed information. information. of information.

Conclusion The conclusion is The conclusion is The conclusion is There is no clear

(Organization) strong and leaves the recognizable and ties up recognizable, but conclusion, the
reader with a feeling almost all the loose ends. does not tie up paper just ends.
that they understand Includes all the necessary several loose ends. Does not include all
what the writer is elements of a closing Does not include all the necessary
"getting at." Includes paragraph the necessary elements of a
all the necessary elements of a closing closing paragraph
elements of a closing paragraph
paragraph

Grammar & Spelling Consistently follows Generally follows rules for Mostly does not follow Does not follow
(Conventions) rules for spelling and spelling and correct use of rules of spelling and rules for spelling
correct use of grammar. Uses complete correct use of and correct use of
grammar. Uses sentences generally and grammar. Mostly grammar. Uses
complete sentences indicates paragraphs often. exhibits errors in sentence structure
and consistently sentence structure that makes it quite
indicates paragraphs. that impede difficult to
communication. understand. Does
Generally does not not use
indicate paragraphs paragraphing.

On a clean sheet of paper (or email your thoughts to : _________________) , write

your reflection on the following question/s:
1. Since the invention of the printing press, people have always panicked about the
implications of the new technologies. Is there something uniquely worrisome about
the nature of technological change today?
2. What technological development do you think has the potential to do the greatest
harm to our species and to our way of life?
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 ASSESSMENT TASK
Is Technology is a Means to an End or an End in Itself?
Suppose you are in a philosophical debate. You will be given the chance to support
which of the following notions below you stand. List down pertinent points and
construct an individual position paper regarding your stance.
A. Technology is an instrument to achieve human goals.
B. Technology is what humanity does.
Submit your output through word or pdf format at _______.

Science and technology has aided us for life survival throughout time and
helped us overcome our adversaries, have a comfortable life, explore the world and
has assisted us in discovering many things and to provide points to ponder on facts
and truths. Bu the way people perceived the world in the lenses of technological
innovations and pursuit of growth, man had conveniently forgotten that technology
only presents one approach in viewing the world. This lead us to evaluate objects as
consumable or not and our valuation of things became one-dimensional, geared
toward production of goods for more consumption, of which we believe will give us a
better living. Heidegger proposed that technology is what humans do and
technological advancement had exposed humans to unknown predicaments and
effectively help us to reveal our own human nature and the journey of finding the
truth.

 REFERENCES:
 Estardo, A. (2018). STS chapter 4 - Human Person flourishing in terms
of Science and Technology. Retrieved July 20, 2020 at
https://www.slideshare.net/annaestardo/bspsts-pt4?from_action=save
 Heidegger, Martin. “The question concerning technology (W. Lovitt,
Trans.) The question concerning technology: and other essays (pp. 3-
35).” (1977).
 McNamara, J et al. 2018. Science Technology and Society. C&E
Publishing Inc.
 Serafica, J. et al.2018. Science Technology and Society, Rex Book
Store Inc.

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