SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY (GECC125)

Prefinals Learning Module #1: The Good Life

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

Activity 1.1. Ethical: Leads to a Good Life

Instruction:

1. Identify at least three(3) of the largest or most prominent organizations/ businesses in the Philippines or internationally
which also conducts their business in our country. Provide a brief description or background of each business including
their products.
2. Decide whether each respective business/ organization is ethical or not. Provide evidences on your claim by citing
articles, publications, or any reputable resources of information about them.

70% - Content
30% - Technical(References, Grammar, etc)

Activity 1.2. The Good Life

Instruction:

1. Answer the question “For you, what is a Good Life?” in a sentence or three. Write your answer in a paper.
2. Ask two of your classmates/ anyone to answer the same question and write their answers in the same paper.
3. Identify whether each of your answers fit either the Materialism, Hedonism, Stoicism, Theism, or Humanism view or
school of thought.
4. Write your answers in a one half crosswise yellow pad. For online classes, submit answers on Google Classroom
submission portal.

Aristotle - the first philosopher who approached the problem of reality from a “scientific” lens as we know now. He also
is the first thinker to dabbled into the complex problematization of the end goal of life: happiness.

- for him, there is no reality over and above what the senses can perceive. It is only by observation of the
external world that one can truly understand what reality is all about.
- change is a process that is inherent in things. We, along with other entities in the world, start as potentialities
and move toward actualities. This course entails change.
- human beings are potentialities who aspire for their actuality. Every human beings move according to some
end, every action that emanates from a human person is a function of the purpose(telos) that he has. Ex.
When you ask for a burger, the action that you take is motivated primarily by the purpose that you have, inferably to get
full or to taste the burger you only see only on TV.
- every human being, according to Aristotle, aspires for an end, this end, is happiness(human flourishing).
No individual resists happiness. For him, it is the be all and end all of everything we do.
-When Aristotle claims that we want to be happy, he does not necessarily mean the everyday happiness that we
obtain when we win a competition or we eat our favorite dish. It means human flourishing, a kind of contentment in
knowing that one is getting the best out of life. A kind of feeling that one has maxed out his potentials in the
world, that he has attained the crux of his humanity.

Happiness as the Goal of a Good Life

 John Stuart Mill(18th Century) - declared the Greatest Happiness Principle by saying that an action is right
as far as it maximizes the attainment of happiness for the greatest number of people. Mill said that individual
happiness pf each individual should be prioritized and collectively dictates the kind of action that should be endorsed.
 Consider the pronouncements against mining. When an action benefits the greatest number of people, said
action is deemed ethical. Does mining benefit rather than hurt the majority? Does it offer more benefits rather
than disadvantages? Does it result to more people getting happy or sad?
 The ethical is meant to lead us to the good and happy life.
 Through the years, man has constantly struggled with the external world in order to reach human flourishing.
History has given birth to different schools of thoughts, all of which aim for the good and happy life:
A. Materialism. First materialists were the atomists in Ancient Greece. Democritus and Leucippus led a school
whose primary belief is that the world is made up of and is controlled by the tiny indivisible units in the world
called atomos or seeds.
 For Democritus and his disciples, the world, including human beings, is made up of matter. There is no
need to posit immaterial entities as sources of purpose.
 Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world as such, only material entities
matter.
 In terms of human flourishing, matter is what makes us attain happiness. We see this at work with
most people who are clinging on to material wealth as the primary source of the meaning of their
existence.

B. Hedonism. Hedonists see the end goal of life in acquiring pleasure. It is and has always been their priority.
For them, life is about obtaining and indulging in pleasure because life is limited.
 The mantra of this school of thought is the famous “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.”
 Led by Epicurus, this school of thought also does not buy any notion of afterlife just like the materialism.

C. Stoicism. Also led by Epicurus, the stoics espoused the idea that to generate happiness, one must learn
to distance oneself and be apathetic.
 Apatheia is the original term that means to be indifferent.
 For the stoics, happiness can only be attained by a careful practice of apathy. We should, in this worldview,
adopt the fact that some things are not within our control. The sooner we realize this, the happier we can
become.

D. Theism. Most people find the meaning of their lives using God as a fulcrum of their existence. Philippines is a
predominantly Catholic country. You can witness how people base their life goals on beliefs that hinged on some
form of supernatural reality called heaven.
 The ultimate basis of happiness for theists is the communion with God. The world where we are in is
only a temporary reality where we have to maneuver around while waiting for the ultimate return to the
hands of God.

E. Humanism. A school of thought that 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.
 For humanists, man is literally the captain of his own ship.
 Inspired by the enlightenment during the 17th century, humanists see themselves not merely as stewards of
the creation but as individuals who are in control of themselves and the world outside of them.
 This is the spirit of most Scientists who thought that the world is a place and space for freely unearthing
the world in seeking for ways on how to improve the lives of its inhabitants.
 Technology is the result of such motivation in order to ease the difficulty of life as illustrated in the previous
lessons.
 Whether or not we agree with these technological advancements, these are all undertaken in the hopes of
attaining the good life. The balance, however, between the good life, ethics, and technology has to be
attained.