Chapter 8

World Views & Human

Values
Introduction

n We will explore the influence of

modern science and
technology on phenomena
belonging to a different sector
of that system: the ideational
realm.
World Views

n Is a descriptive-interpretive
mental model of the universe
and its phenomena
n
n It encompasses beliefs about
various fundamental matters,
such as what things are real
and what are illusory in the
world
n The origins, natures, and destinies (if
any) of things that exist
n The primary forces at work in the
world
n This the way how human life ought to
be lived
n Helps its subscribers find meaning in
otherwise unbearable suffering,
give directions to their lives, and
spur them to overcome opposing
forces
The Scientific Revolution and the
Rise of a Mechanistic World
n First great influence of S&T is
the scientific revolution of 17th
century. According to works of
P.M. Harman:
n By around 1700, educated men
conceived the universe as a
mechanical structure like a
clock, the earth was regarded
as a planet revolving around
the sun, and the mysteries of
nature were supposed to be
open to investigation by
means of experimentation and
mathematical analysis.
 -to be continued
n These new attitudes to the natural
world contrast strikingly with the
traditional conception of nature:
that the earth was immobile and
the center of the cosmos, the
cosmos itself being envisaged as a
structure of crystalline spheres
enveloping the central earth like
the layers of an onion; nature was
conceived as a living organism, a
connected structure linked by a
web of hidden active powers.
n However, advances of science
two centuries later posed new
challenges to the revised
world views of educated
religious believers. Advances
in paleontology and geology in
the nineteenth century. This is
supported by Darwin’s and
Freud’s theory.5
n The conflicts of continuous
developments of science and
technology lead for beliefs to
be regarded as problematic if
not incredible, this is the stand
the Western intellectuals are
taking.
Technology and Science in the
19th Century
-> turning point
n Science based industries
l Coal tar dye manufacture
l Electrical power generation


n Birth of industrial research

laboratory
l Technological application in
Germany

Technology and Science in the
20th Century
-> modernization of products
n Growth of industrial research
laboratory
l German coal tar dye
l Bell telephone laboratory

n Technology partially dependent

on science
l Genetics, physics and
chemistry
l

20th Century Dev’ts in Science

n 19th and 20th Century physics

adversities
n Maxwell’s eletromagnetic theory
–interaction between particles
n E.g. billiard ball or ball bearing
n Einstein’s theory of special
relativity – relation between
time and space continuum
n E.g. interconvertibility of
matter & energy as
represented at E=mc2



n Werner Heisenberg
 – indeterminacy of position and
momentum of single subatomic
particle.



Abstract Science – Rapid
Technological Change and
Contemporary World Views
n Big Bang Theory
n Hunting and gathering of native
American tribes
n Judeo-Christian tradition
l “Godthe Father” & “wrathful
Jehovah”
n Bows and arrows to being
agriculturized and
industrialized
Happiness

n A consumptional idea of happiness

n Changed nature of the reigning
cultural ideal of happiness
reflected the new socioeconomic
need to ensure sufficient demand
for greatly increased supplies of
goods that the new industrial
system must now capable
producing
n
n A new profusion of material
goods by devaluing acetic
denial and celebrating a fluent
consumption.

Beliefs and Expectations,
Attitudes and Feelings
n Beliefs in the era of global
transportation and
communication and post
World War II period.
n Expectations of parents living on
after death through their
children.
n “Revolution of Rising
Expectations”
n For attitude revolution in mass
communication has
contributed to the weakening
of traditional xenophobia and
fostered greater tolerance of
groups.
n S&T have engendered
disturbing new feelings in
modern Western culture.
Juncel Reyes
Human Values

n Purely matters of individual

choice.
n Modern Western values
l Knowledge
l Technology
l Science
l Progress
l Efficiency
n Four Cornerstone Mutually
Reinforcing Values in Modern
Western Culture
l Empirical Knowledge
l Material Technology
l Systematic Science
l Societal Progress
Efficiency

n Relationship of the “outputs” of a

system to its “inputs” or to its
defining parameters
n Its concept has traversed six
distinguishable evolutionary stages
l Perennial Technical Stage
l Modern Technical Stage
l Modern Human Stage
l Modern Socio-technical Stage
l Modern Institutional Stage
l Contemporary Stage of Everyday
LIfe
Peace, Env’t, Justice &
Authority
n The important post-World War II
values of env’tal integrity and
peace became more fervently and
widely held in 20th Century
n The mechanism by which these
values rose to prominence might
be termed “reactive crystallization”
n Authority is profoundly shaken by the
new behavioral options and
intellectual horizons especially the
youth
Conclusion

n It is impossible to imagine what

ideational culture might be without
the dev’t of the past two centuries.
n Research is geared to enable or
require the formulation of certain
human values and engender the
projection of others as antidotes
for unpalatable effects of technical
dev’ts or practices.
n Nevertheless, the central importance
of the world views, ideas, and
values discussed in this chapter,
be they old and surviving or new
and thriving, and the widespread
failure to recognize that these
mental elements have been
strongly conditioned by
developments in science and
technology, is by itself sufficient
reason to include this particular
influence component in an account
of the difference that science and
technology have made in modern
Western society.
Idea and Ideals

What is idea?

What is ideal?
Idea of Progress

 Continued improvement in
knowledge of the environment of
man in the natural sciences, and
more recently in technology
derived from them.
 Technological improvement will
lead in the future to
improvement in the material
conditions of life.


 Progress in both of these senses.


Example:

n Western ideas of progress for

Sydney Pollard
Societal Progress

n 16th century
 Growing awareness of a
number of impressive recent
inventions and advances in
technology and science
>wedding of gunpowder and

improved cannon
>the invention of printing with

movable type
>improved sails
n 18th century
 General improvement in
social and political life.
n 20th century
 Wedding of science and
technology in the field of
weaponry
 The modern
Sociotechnical Stage
The stage was set for the emergence of s new
kind of technical professional:the indusrial or
efficiency engineer.

The aim of such engineers was to determine how

to train workers and organize and orchestrate the
operations of peolple,technics,materialsand
capital as to maximize industrial output in relation
to the resources employed in producing it.
Modern Institutional Stage
Efficiency enhancement was on
the verge of spreading beyond
the confines of the factory and
embarking on a long march
through the full spectrum of
large scale institutions of 20th
century industrial society.
Contemporary Stage of
Everydayeveryday life for
life begin more complex,atleast
individyal in urban and metropolitan areas.

Activities that consume considerable amounts of

time or labor where natural targets for efficiency
enhancement.

Efficiency began its career as in implicit

“natural”human goal,became an
expilicit,sytematically pursued value of modern
engineering.
Novelty,Self Realization,
Cosmopolitanness
n Novelty as as a cultural value is a also a
unique to industrial society.
n
n Cosmopolitanness(in experience,taste and
outlook)