Ranie B. Villaver, Orlando Ali M. Mandane
As early as the year 2004, a challenge has been issued for Filipinos to respond philosophically towards technology. Briefly, the challenge is to move out from the state of ambivalent orientation in technology. Such an orientation is a sorry state of tension between the views of technology as alienating humans and technology as advancing ourselves. Technology alienates humans, thereby creating dangerous technophobes. Technology uplifts and advances humans, thereby creating over-tolerant technophiles. In this paper, we offer two further issues or questions for consideration in thinking about orientation in or stance about technology. We do this in the light of the Zhuangzi’s Primitivist attitude towards technology. The Primitivist is one of the five authorial voices identified in the Zhuangzi. The Zhuangzi is a Chinese philosophical classic named after Zhuang Zhou or Zhuangzi (399?-295? B.C.E.). Fundamentally, we suggest that the Primitivist attitude of resistance towards technology might be said to highlight the point that effects of technology to xing (nature; human nature), thus to individual self, and the natural environment are important considerations in thinking about stance regarding technology. We hold that a reflection on technological orientation would on the whole benefit from a recognition and consideration of two more issues. © 2023 Ranie B. Villaver and Orlando Ali M. Mandane, Jr., All Rights Reserved.
Department of Philosophy, University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines
