IB Philosophy 10.7.4 Technology and Mass Civilization Key Definitions

Developed by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, the capabilities approach evaluates human well-being and social justice by measuring what people are actually able to do and to be, rather than what resources they formally possess. It holds that a just society must guarantee every person a sufficient threshold of real, effective opportunities across central areas of human life, including bodily health, education, political participation, and emotional expression.

Mass civilization is Ortega y Gasset's term for a society organized around mass production and consumption, in which technological convenience replaces individual effort and the achievements of civilization are enjoyed without understanding the intellectual labour that produced them.

In Ortega y Gasset's philosophy, the mass man is a social type defined not by class but by a psychological attitude of self-satisfaction and complacency, marked by a refusal to demand more of oneself than what comes easily.

Self-demand (exigencia) is Ortega's central concept describing the internal discipline through which an individual holds himself to standards higher than those imposed by society, treating life as a project of continuous self-improvement rather than passive consumption.

Technological determinism is the view that technology drives social change independently of human choice, reducing culture, politics, and values to effects of technological development. Ortega resists this position by insisting that technology's effects depend on the character of the people who use it.