Introduction to Philosophy of The Human Person

Week 5 - Human Existence of Intersubjectivity

Self-Consciousness and Dialogue

- One important and inherent aspect of human person as thinking and acting being is self-consciousness.
- For this aspect to become more complete, it must recognize itself through another self-consciousness.
- Emerges when communicating each other in a vocative situation or in dialogue.
- Gabriel Marcel’s idea: In establishing relation with another person, self-consciousness becomes more aware of
itself
- The continuous dialogue between “I”’s self-consciousness and the other’s consciousness leads to the
establishment of unity of consciousness that pervades in the dialogue
- This summons each self-consciousness to treat one another not as an object but as subject, as thou and not as it
(Buber).
- Moreover, Marcel believes that the absence of freedom in communicative manifestation, objectification follows.

Self and Dialogue

- Human being’s selfhood is its individuality, self-being, self-realization and well-being.

- It does not show itself when one decides to break himself from communicative manifestation of his/her being.
- Karl Jaspers says: Selfhood only emerges itself in it and through dialogical situation. Dialogue fosters
individuality, self-identity and self being of each person in the dialogical situation

Freedom and Dialogue: Unfolding of the self

- Freedom is a human aspect that he/she becomes conscious of himself/herself.

- However, Freedom effects something thing upon human being if it is expressed in a dialogical context
- The true expression of freedom occurs when it is expressed both for one’s self-being but for the other’s self-
being. This freedom is never passive. It summons human being to action and this action presupposes
relationship.
- R. Tagore claims: Human freedom can only find its true meaning in relation to the freedom of another human
being.

Truth and dialogue: Making present

- Truth about one’s self-being is always rational; and it is unveiled through dialogical situation or communicative
manifestation.
- It is experienced and shared as human being engages himself/herself in an intersubjective or interhuman or
dialogical encounter.
- Buber and Jaspers reminds us: it is in this encounter the truth of the one’s whole being can possibly emerge.
- Jaspers: “Truth gives courage: if I have grasped it at any point the urge grows to pursue it relentlessly. Truth
gives support; here something indestructible. Something linked to being”
- Truth, make you project a true image of who you are; true self emerges.
- In the context of friendships; truth matters for meaningful relationships.
Human Being as Political Animal

Aristotle

- “Man is by nature a political animal.

- Living in a society organized intelligently, such as a city, state or nations, is what makes us human.
- Anybody who lives outside the “city-state” is either a beast or a God.
- Man engages in politics to achieve the “common good”
- In the classical period, Humans could not conceive a good life separately from politics.
- Therefore, “Man is a political animal”
- At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from laws and justice he is the worst.

Thomas Hobbes

- “Government is necessary, not because man is naturally bad… but because man is by nature more individualistic
than social.”
- He argued that people were naturally wicked and could not be trusted to govern. Humans are naturally selfish
and violent
- “Leviathan” – is a strong ruler who can give people direction
- Fear of others in the state of nature prompts people to form government through a social contract.
- Social Contract – An agreement between individuals held together by the common interest.
- “Morally consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will
agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well.”
- “During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called
war; and such a war as if every man, against every man.”

Baron de Montesquieu

- “in the state of nature… all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them
lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law
- There should be a separation of powers
- Separation of powers would keep any individual or group from gaining total control
- The separation of powers check and balances the power
o Legislative
o Executive
o Judicial
- “It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.
- “to become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.

Human’s Existence of Intersubjectivity

- Intersubjectivity deals with the human person as a subject in relation to another.

- You will be introduced to some philosophers who emphasized the idea of the “subject” as a being who
recognizes the other.
- The “other” here refers to the other person, such as a neighbor, stranger, or simply another subject than the
self.
o However, the other does not only pertain to a human being. It could refer to other beings, inanimate or
animate, such as animals plants, or the environment.
Paul Ricoeur

- Man is this plural and collective unity in which the unity of destination and differences of destinies are to be
understood through each other
- Jean- Paul Gustave Ricoeur
o He is a French philosopher and historian who studied various linguistic and psychoanalytic theories of
interpretation.
o Even a glimpse of Ricoeur’s life, one could sense the breadth of his philosophy, particularly his
contribution to hermeneutics or the art of interpretation

Texts as the concept of intersubjectivity

- He said that the world now becomes discoverable, not behind the text but in front of the text, then the work
unfolds, discovers, and reveals.
- He continues that for one to understand is to understand oneself in front of a text. In other words, the text is
necessary for the development of the self and paves the way to discover the world.
- Through hermeneutics, one can be a better version of himself. The realization of the development of the self
presupposes that a reader of a text will realize to be a good and responsible person, not only for himself but for
others (ricoeur, 2008)
- If one stretches out the idea of self or self-hood, one cannot exclude the idea of the other.
- Oneself implies such an ostensible event that one cannot be thought of without the other. Oneself has its title
as a self because of the other.
o This thought is not a comparison between the self and the other, rather this is an illustration of the
subject and intersubject that, there is an implication that oneself is similar to another or oneself since
being other (Ricoeur, 1994)

Self

- Ricoeur’s idea of the self brought Descartes’ famous dictum “I think, therefore, I am”
- Rene Descartes is a philosopher who lived during the scientific revolution, the era of rapid advances in the
sciences
o He is best known for his “ethodic doubt’ and the concept of the “cogito”
o Man can doubt everything except the self. Using doubt as a standpoint, one can attain knowledge and
certainty.
o When talking about the self “I think, therefore I am” means that man is a thinking being, and that a
thinking being exists.
o If one knows the self well, understand the self, then the act of reaching out for others is not a farfetched
reality (ricoeur, 1994)
o To realize the existence of the self serves as an impetus for reaching out to others. The self does not
necessarily mirror the other; rather it recognizes that the other also has a self of its own
- This kind of realization broadens the horizon not only having solipsistic point of view of survival. One has also to
learn to take care of the self of the other.
- Selfishness can be a temporary phase may lead one to become a selfless human being the moment he/she
realizes the other.

Martin Buber
 - The content and relation of these two world is the theme of I and thou. The other person, the though is shown
to be a reality – that is – it is given to me but is not bounded by me
- Buber differentiates the “I and it” and the “I and Thou
o The I-it relationship points to the existence of the self and its relation to another, which is not
necessarily a human being e.g., plants, animals, and objects.
o The I-thou relationship points to the existence of the self and its relation to another entity that has a
human self, that is, another human being, or simply the “other”.

I-thou

- This I-thou relationship presupposes that each participant is concerned for each other, and each person turns
fully and equally towards the other with openness and ethical engagement.
- Buber maintains the importance of the relationship of person to person.
- This existence is heightened by the act of dialogue, Leading to the realization of total-presentness.
- The philosophy of dialogue pour much concerns on wholeness, decision, presentness and uniqueness. These boil
down to the question of the authenticity of the self or authentic existence. For Buber, one becomes a person by
engaging or entering into a relationship with a thou.
- To know how to address human existence vis-avis the self’s existence is the key to achieving the state of being
fully human.
- If the self is not only at the play of discovering his own existence, he might fall short in becoming fully human,
However, if the self engages with others and enters into an I-thou relationship, becoming fully human becomes
a reality. The pursuit of becoming truly human is attained in the I and thou relationship.

Emmanuel Levinas

- “to approach the other in conversation is to welcome his expression, in which at each instant he overflows the
idea a thought would carry away from it. Therefore, it is to receive from the other beyond the capacity of the I,
which means exactly: to have the idea of infinity. But this also means: to be taught” – Emmanuel Levinas 1979
- For Levinas, “ethics is the first philosophy because it is only acknowledging the command in the face of the other
that we can account for the sensitivity to the normative distinctions that structure intentional content” –
Crowell, 2015
o Thus, the human person is intentionally directed to the world; and in the face of the other. Heshe does
not find the superiority over the other.
o Ethics call s for a vivid and wide scope of responsibility towards the other.
- This idea of intersubjectivity presupposes the equality and inclusiveness of every individual.
o For instance, in a classroom setting where most armchairs are designed only for a right-handed person,
being responsible for the other presupposes that the left-handed students will also be provided with
armchairs that are purposefully built for them.
o This way, these students will not feel outcasted from the majority.
o Also, those malls and parking lots where ramps for wheelchairs intended for persons with disabilities are
provided to demonstrate such a responsibility for the other.
- These examples show that the other’s concern and responsibility are expressed not only in words but, most
importantly, translated into concrete actions.

Idealistic Transcendental Ego as Man’s Ultimate Goal

- One should not focus on the question of being’s essence, but rather which responsibility has it awoken to.
 - Levinas encourages to go out from the self and opens one’s heart and mind to see the face of the vulnerable
other. This means that recognizing the sense of responsibility is the paramount priority in engaging oneself with
the other
o If one sees a homeless, he/she should think of giving alms. Although some may believe that there are
people who do not deserve to be helped, especially if these individuals have wronged and caused them
pain, these kinds of situation require sincerity to be responsible for others. In other words, being
responsible is taking care for the others

Who is the “other”?

- “other” is not limited to the other person.

- The other does not only mean the alterity of the self or as the other person, but also those who are
interconnected with the environment.
o Levinas asserts that “the other’s ‘exteriority’ does not consist in the difference between my appearance-
systems and his or hers, but in the other’s ability to call me (normatively) into question: “The presence
of the other is equivalent to this calling into question of my joyous possession of the world” (Boorse,
2008)
- The self’s task is no longer centered on the development of the self because the other in one way or another,
affirms the selfless self. It cannot be emphasized enough that the self may still want to attain its perfection, but
not at the other’s expense

Conclusion

- Intersubjectivity includes fundamentally the ideas of the self and the other.
- For Ricoeur, as he employed Rene Descartes in elucidating the concept of the self and other reiterates, one
should learn how to develop oneself before one reaches out for the other. It is safe to say that, self-care & self-
preservation are the stepping stone for taking care of others.
- For Buber, He distinguished the “I and It” and “I and Thou”. The former (I-it) presupposes the interaction of the
self with different things but having a self. In contrast, the latter (I-Thou) connotes the “other” and must enter
into a relationship with others because reaching out for others leads to becoming a full human being
- For Levinas, we should go out of ourselves to see the vulnerable in the face of the other. The responsibility
towards the other is the key concept of his philosophy.