Intersubjectivity

Objectives:
1. Explain the concept of “I-thou” relationship
and intersubjectivity.
2. Realize that intersubjective relationship is
not imposition and superficiality.
3. Reflect on one’s intersubjective
relationships.
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OUTLINE
I. Interhuman Relations
II. Human Society and
Difference
III. Infinite Responsibility
IV. Love as Presence

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“
Can you identify
these images?

What do they
signify?
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“

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There are different sources of
meaning in life. Most often than
not, the major source of meaning
which most people, man and
woman alike, find comfort, is in the
experience of intersubjectivity.
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Love is important in the attainment of
personhood. The appreciation of
intersubjectivity allows us to develop
a greater sensitivity to other people
who are worth our attention and care. 7
1.
The Social and
Interhuman
Relations
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was a prominent
twentieth century philosopher,
religious thinker, political activist and
educator. He is best known for his
1923 book, Ich und Du (I and Thou),
which distinguishes between “I-Thou”
and “I-It” modes of existence.
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SOCIAL
▫ Group of people bound together characterized by
indifference and ignorance.
▫ Each individual existence is enclosed and contained in a
group existence.

INTERHUMAN
▫ An event that happens between two persons. Each one
recognizes the other as a person.
▫ A sphere where a person is confronted by the other. A
dialogue. 10
Intersubjectivity
Refers to two human beings in an interhuman
relation.

Subjectivity
Aspect of man’s reality by virtue of which he
rises above being the blindly determined result
of processes and forces.
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The I and Thou
▫ Philosophy of personal dialogue
▫ Defines the nature of reality
▫ Human existence may be defined by the way in
which we engage in dialogue with each other,
with the world, and with God.
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“I and Thou” relation
 Man is the being who faces an “other” and
constructs a world from the dual acts of
distancing and relating.
 The “I-Thou” relation is the pure encounter of one

whole unique entity with another in such a way

that the other is known without being subsumed
under a universal.
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The “I”
The “I” of the “I-It” relation is a self-enclosed,
solitary individual (der Einzige) that takes itself as
the subject of experience.

The “I” of the “I-Thou” relation is a whole, focused,

single person (der Einzelne) that knows itself
as subject.
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The “I”
I-IT
▪ The I is detached or separated from the It
▪ The being of the I belongs to I, not to It.
I-THOU
▪ The I is unified with the Thou.
▪ The I belongs to both the I and Thou.
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I and Thou
Hopes to make the other complete.
A life fully realizing the meaning of being with
someone.

The “other”
Not reducible to an objective reality in this sort
of relation, is the sole motive of love.
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I-Thou relations
▪ It is the person himself that one gives importance
and value, not the attributes and qualities.
▪ Subject to subject relationship
▪ Unity of being
▪ We do not perceive each other as consisting of
specific, isolated qualities
▪ Engaging in dialogue involving each other’s whole
being.
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I-Thou Relations
▫ Relationship of Mutuality and Reciprocity
▫ The being of a subject is a unity that cannot be
analyzed as an object.
▫ Direct interpersonal relation
▫ Not mediated by any intervening system of
ideas.
▫ An ultimate relation involving the whole being
of each subject.
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I-It Relations
Things are of value because of the purpose that
we put into them.

An “I-It” relation experiences a detached thing,

fixed in space and time.
An “I-Thou” relation participates in the dynamic,
living process of an “other”
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I-It Relations
Relation of subject-to-object
We perceive each other as consisting of specific,
isolated qualities and view ourselves as part of a
world which consists of things.
Separateness and detachment
Inescapable relation
The world is analyzed and described
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The relation between two people
▪ Cannot be objectified.
▪ Cannot be reduced to an “I-IT” type of
connectivity.
▪ We commune with other in the exercise of true
human freedom.

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The Reality of human existence:
being and seeming
1.What one really is. (BEING)
We deal with others in a personal way on
the basis of who the individual is, without
reservation.

2. What one wishes to seem (SEEMING)

The desire to protect one’s reputation.
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The Human Person
Possessors of value and a value in
itself.

To love a human being is to value the

person in his/her being.

The love for the other makes the self

complete.
Intersubjectivity
• A creative type of relation and does not dominate.
• In true love, the other finds not only comfort but a
life of happiness. A joy found in the presence of the
other.
• It is through love that we make a concrete appeal
to the other. An appeal that seeks to develop a life
of togetherness, unconditional love, and
commitment. 25
LOVE
▫ Relation between I and Thou
▫ Subjects share the unity of each other’s being.
▫ There is a sense of caring, respect, commitment,
and responsibility.
▫ “the heart has its reasons which reason knows
nothing of… We know the truth not only by the
reason, but by the heart.” – Blaise Pascal
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Eternal Thou
▫ God is the eternal Thou who sustains the I-Thou
relation eternally.
▫ A unity of being where one can always find God.
▫ No barrier of other relations
▫ Known as the absolute person who gives unity
to all being
▫ The foundation of all other relations
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 2.
Human Society
and Difference
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Human Solidarity
▫ The ground for our social existence
▫ There is a society to realize the basic
meaning of humanity.
▫ Important to protect and promote well-
being of a person.

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John Rawls
John Rawls was arguably the most
important political philosopher of the
twentieth century. He wrote a series
of highly influential articles in the
1950s and ’60s that helped refocus
Anglo-American moral and political
philosophy on substantive problems
about what we ought to do.

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Social Justice
▫ Concerns the fair treatment of the human
person on the basis of his being a person.
▫ “Justice is the first virtue of institutions, as
truth is of systems of thought.”
▫ Man’s dignity is his moral worth
▫ Violation of rights is deprivation of basic
entitlements.
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Social Justice
▪ Situations are unjust when one is denied the
equal opportunity to enjoy goods of society
(income and respect)

Social Relations
▪ Formed through solidarity
▪ Solidarity is grounded in the community
▪ Commonality of interest
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Social Existence
▫ Implies a hierarchy
▫ Status in society through positions
and economic conditions
▫ Misrecognition and misjudgment
▫ Preference of able-bodied persons
▫ The evil reality of human indifference

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Politics of Difference
▫ Explains the reality of structural injustice.
▫ Oppressions in society: exploitation,
powerlessness, marginalization, cultural
imperialism, violence.
▫ Injustices are revealed to rectify society and
identify our moral responsibilities
▫ Responsibility for the other

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Responsibility for the Other
▫ We have a moral responsibility for the other
especially to the differently-abled persons
▫ Giving respect for the equal dignity of human
beings as persons
▫ Shared responsibility by looking for the future

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3.
Infinite
Responsibility
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Emmanuel Levinas
Levinas's philosophy has been called
ethics. Levinas claimed, in 1961, that he
was developing a “first philosophy.”
This first philosophy is neither
traditional logic nor metaphysics. It is
an interpretive, phenomenological
description of the rise and repetition of
the face-to-face encounter, or the
intersubjective relation

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Ethics as First Philosophy
▫ Ethics comes first before any other branches of
Philosophy
▫ Concrete and it is prior to any system of
thoughts
▫ The foundation of all beings, the awareness of
man’s moral responsibility towards the other
▫ Ethics leads to the relation of infinite
responsibility for the other person
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Ethics as First Philosophy
▫ Western Philosophy is a form of egology
▫ Philosophy should be in the form of totality

Totality
▫ A fundamental perspective where the “I” is at
the center.
▫ The “I” reduces the “Other” to itself
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The “I” (the self)
▫ Encounters an immanent responsibility
through the face of the other
▫ Becomes responsible to the other without pre-
conceived categories or knowledge
▫ The I has no choice but to be responsible for the
Other since it is its duty to be responsible for the
other
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The Face of the Other
▪ Speaks of its uniqueness
▪ The extreme straightforwardness, poverty,
nakedness, precariousness and defenselessness
of the face of the other demands an immediate
moral responsibility
▪ Has a language and grammar
▪ a demand, begging command, and plea
▪ Ultimate mandate: “Thou shall not kill”
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Infinite Responsibility
▫ The original encounter of the face, is that of an
infinite responsibility
▫ An ethical relationship that knows no
boundaries or rules
▫ The face implies an otherness of the other
▫ Rejection is the initial reaction, but obligation is
a moral necessity, irreducible and complete
▫ Infinite desire
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Infinite Responsibility
▫ It becomes concrete because the face is concrete
▫ Movement from “a home we inhabit” (self) to “an
alien outside-of-oneself” (other)
▫ Responsibility is prior to freedom, it is a bond.
▫ A primordial call before being
▫ All relationship originates from the encounter of
the face
▫ Asymmetrical, one is not demanding the
other’s responsibility for him. Responsibility is
not necessarily reciprocal 43
4.
Love as
Presence
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Feelings
▫ An impulsive reaction to contingent or
transitory moments
▫ Do not have lasting and concrete value
▫ Commitment transcends feeling-state
▫ One has for the other is an emotion, not feeling-
state
▫ Love and hatred are emotions, not feelings.
Transcendence of feeling-state
▫ Making a promise implies a spontaneous
willingness to commit oneself
▫ Authentic commitment can only be grounded in
one’s honesty
▫ The value of love is realized through sincerity
▫ Sincerity defies the reality of man’s momentary
life and struggle
▫ Man’s struggle should be met with real concern,
manifested by way of one’s presence
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Presence
▫ The act of being for someone is always free
▫ Not limited to communication, but communion
between two beings
▫ Oneness that is beyond constancy and
compromise
▫ Constancy as a matter of maintaining an image
▫ Compromise as grounded in temporariness,
fear, and the uncertainty of things which make
the idea of love conditional 47
Love
▫ Unconditional ultimate act of freedom
▫ Presence goes beyond physical existence
▫ Eternal, death destroys only the physical state of
one’s being
▫ Insofar as two beings are one, true love defies
death
▫ Requires courage and acceptance of human
finitude
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Thank You for
listening!

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