Science and

Humankind
Cladinea Mahfira (1304593)
R. Auliya U.I.F (1304313)
In this chapter you will:
• Consider to what extent humans can be
regarded as machines
• Explore the implication of neuroscience
• Examine the social functioning of science
Science vs. Humankind
The Human Machine
• How can human be regarded as machine?

Galen (129- • Heart → heat

210 CE) • Lungs → cool air

Harvey • Heart → pump

(1578-1657) • Lungs → place for
blood be oxygenated
• The process of pumped blood can be
analyzed as work of the body, that each
organ in our body was nourished by
oxygenated blood. So that, the whole
body can be regarded as interconnected
system.
The Human body vs. The Universe
• At the same time as Harvey’s work on
human body. Descartes thought in his
philosophy that the unextended mind was
separated from the extended physical
body, with the latter able to be examined
like any other machine, controlled by
mechanical laws.
• The issue for understanding of the human
being is whether it can be adequately
explained in terms of the mechanisms that
are revealed by reductionist analysis.
• If it can, then human beings can be
regarded, from scientific point of view, as
machine.
Human Origins and Evolution
• Chronological Overview
• Interpreting Evidence
Notice the scientific methodology used in examining human
origins. We have archeology to investigate that. The problem is
about fossil record and evolutionary change. Then when the
research becomes more depth, there is very little physical
evidence upon which to build theories. A small piece of
conflicting evidence may be enough to threaten an entire theory
of human development and migration.
 So here we need to reflect the issue and using the
process of falsification that might suggest that a single
stone tool is enough to require that a theory be
abandoned. In the other hand, it might be more prudent
to put the contrary evidence on hold to see if it is
confirmed by later findings.
• Evolution
In The Descent of Man (1871) and The Expression of the Emotions
(1872) Darwin suggested that mental ability and social behavior could
have the same form of evolutionary development overtime as the
physical body.
This generally termed ‘Social Darwinism’, an approach originally
developed by Herbert Spencer (1820-1930), whose own theory of
evolution was based on Lamarck’s idea that one could inherit
characteristics that had been developed by one’s parents, which was to
be superseded by Darwin’s natural selection theory.
According to Spencer, it was only natural that human society
should follow the struggle for survival that went on throughout nature.
The Status of Social and Psychological
Theories

• Karl Marx
He conducted extensive historical
research into the causes of political and
social change. He observed that human
survival depended on the supply of
food and other goods, and that the
function of society was to organize the
production and distribution of these.
He pictured society in terms of
networks of relationship, based on
fulfilling of human need.
• Sigmund Freud
He developed psychoanalysis as a
means of exploring origins of such
condition. Through the analysis of dreams
and by the free association of thoughts, a
person could be led to articulate feelings
which had been locked within the
unconscious, but which Freud saw as the
cause of bizarre behavior or nervous
conditions. But, feelings or sensations
cannot be observed directly, since they are
not part of the physical world.
COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND NEUROSCIENCE

In the mid twentieth century a majority of people have

accepted a dualist view.

1. Psychology had generally explored the mind in terms of the

reported experience of individuals.
Cont…
2. Behaviorism approached mental operations through measuring
physical responses to stimuli.
a. Science of mind should be based on things that could be measured
and quantified through experiment and observation.
b. For example being happy is measured by whether one smiles, being
in pain by curling up
c. Some people can mask their true feelings and fake others.
Cont..
In the late 1960s comes the attempt to approach the mind
and human knowledge in a scientific way through experiment
and observation.
There was a new approach to the mind called cognitive
science based on a combination of several evidence:
a) Philosophy and pharmacology
b) Linguistic
c) Computer science
Cont….
Cognitive Science is an interdisciplinary approach to the
scientific examination of human thought and knowledge.
Now, we are not limited to understanding the actual process
of knowing something ( cognition ), we can links with the
biology science to examine matters related to the functioning
of the brain, which is neuroscience.
Neuroscience examines the functioning of various part of
the brain, measuring the way in which the firing of neurons
corresponds to, say, vision, hearing, thought and so on.
The social function of science
Environment
a. Positive : The finding of hydroponic gardening
b. Negative : Nuclear weapons

Politic :
c. Positive : Government wants to develop the country
d. Negative : The finding about the difference IQ related to differences in
race neglected because it was considered as racism ( moral )

Economics
• Scientific method aims to guard against the complaint that the finding
of science are made to conform to the expectation of those who pay for
it.
• Scientist have to earn a living and therefore have to undertake work
that is able to attract sponsorship or some sort of funding.
Giving a definitive answer ?
There is a general expectation on the part of the public that
science will provide a definitive answer to such question.
But
Science always needs to remain open to the possibility.
Cont….

1. Science can point to what is possible, but cannot say whether it is

right or not.

2. There needs to be distinction between the categorical imperative

( you ought to do X ) and the hypothesis (you need to do X, if you
want to achieve Y).

3. Science can provide information on which to base hypothetical

imperatives.

4. What is clear is that all science can be expected to provide is the

evidence, suitable explained, upon which judgment can be made.
The Human Perspective
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

1. Science and technology developed and established

themselves as a significant force in Western
culture.
2. There was a sense that humankind should make
progress, based on reason.
3. Research and experiment were features of science
that fitted well with the overall view of life.
Cont…
The nineteenth century

1. Great developments in technology

2. Great controversies between the science and
traditional religious authority, particularly over
evolution
3. The groundwork for much twentieth-century
science was done in the latter part of the
nineteenth.
Cont….
Twentieth century
1. Both in philosophy and in science, were times when progress was
seen as inevitable.
2. Science and reason had prevailed over superstition.
3. Technology had given great benefits.
4. Then came the traumas of the twentieth century - in war - in political
instability and global rivalry between conflicting ideologies.
5. The promise of a better life through technology, championed in the
post –war-years, appeared to many to have a downside in terms of
the threat of global extinction through nuclear war, pollution of the
environment, and gross inequality fuelled by technologies and
consumerism.
Cont….
Twenty-first Century
1. Many of the human perspectives on science that were evidenced in
earlier century remain.
2. Technology can be threat rather than a blessing, but its regulation is
recognized as a moral and political issue rather than a scientific one.
3. A human perspective on science also requires that we weigh
carefully exactly what science is able to do, and how it findings are
justified, so that we do not accept uncritically anything that is
presented as being ‘scientific’.
4. The mark of true science is a commitment to truth along with a
recognition of the provisional nature of every claim we make,
however convincing it may seem to us at this time.