INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

Reviewer

INTERSUBJECTIVITY

Intersubjectivity, a term originally coined by the philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), is most simply
stated as the interchange of thoughts and feelings, both conscious and unconscious, between two persons or “subjects,”
as facilitated by empathy. To understand intersubjectivity, it is essential to understand subject and object. The subject
is the person experiencing an action or event. The object is what is being experienced, or the goal of the subject. The
I–Thou relationship is characterized by mutuality, directness, presentness, intensity and ineffability. Martin Buber
described the between as a bold leap into the experience of the other while simultaneously being transparent, present
and accessible. He used the term “inclusion” to describe this heightened form of empathy. It is a far cry from the now-
familiar scene of a group of friends sitting around a table at a restaurant, all gazing into their smartphones.

According to Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla on the concept of intersubjectivity, “We participate in the
communal life. Our notion of the “neighbor” and “fellow member” is by participating in the humanness of the other person.

POVERTY. Intesubjectivity also tackles poverty as one of the major factors to relating I-thou concept. Poverty is
powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom”. Hence, poverty is increasingly being understood as a
multidimensional phenomenon. Poverty is more than an economic condition, in which the basic necessities of life are
lacking, such as food, housing, and clothing.

GENDER. Jean-Jacques Rousseau is considered one of the key Enlightenment philosophers, and his writings reveal
that he was concerned with “equality among men,” but he certainly did not make women's equality his focus. Rousseau's
main argument has been summarized as “man is good but has been corrupted by social institutions.” He also wrote that
“nature has created man happy and good, but society depraves him and makes him miserable." The experiences of
women, however, did not inspire this degree of contemplation from Rousseau, who essentially deemed them the weaker
sex, content to be dependent upon men.

THE HUMAN PERSON IN SOCIETY

SOCIETY

 It is a group of people who live in a particular territory, are subject to a common system of political authority, and
are aware of having a distinct identity from other groups (Giddens, et al., 2020). It is a system of
interrelationships that connects individuals.

SOCIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION- It is the process by which a society’s social structure changes as its culture and
technology become more sophisticated.

INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES

 They depend on mechanization to produce goods and services. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution
(1760-1830), no longer did an individual make an entire product. Instead, there were specialization of tasks and
manufacturing of goods.
 McDonaldization: process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and
more sectors of society (Ritzer, 1993).
 Four guiding principles: efficiency, calculability, uniformity, and control through automation
 Ritzer thus argues that society as a whole is moving toward this highly standardized and regulated model. Thus,
social life is becoming more homogeneous, more rigid, and less personal.
 Karl Marx noted that in industrialized societies, the process of work, which is something that should be creative
and enjoyable for the worker, is distorted. This distortion causes alienation or the separation of things that
naturally belong together.

FEUDAL SOCIETIES

 Feudal society is a military hierarchy in which a ruler or lord offers mounted fighters a fief (medieval beneficium),
a unit of land to control in exchange for a military service. The individual who accepted this land became a
vassal, and the man who granted the land become known as his liege or his lord.
 The main idea behind feudalism was to create a system in which along with land revenue, a standing army
would be created for service. In other words, feudalism was a system where the relationship in society was
derived from the holding of land.

SOCIAL CONTRACT

 Many theories of a just society begin with the idea that the state is the result of individuals coming together to
form an organized society for their mutual benefit.
 According to these theories, society is a “social contract” freely entered into by independent and fully informed
people. Society needs a social contract to coexist peacefully.

 Hobbes believed that humans are fundamentally predisposed to selfishness and destruction. Humans agree to
enter into “social contracts,” by which they surrender some of their personal autonomy to a governing authority
(i.e., the state), in exchange for order and protection. Society needs a social contract to protect natural rights.
  John Locke has a more optimistic view of human nature. Humans willingly enter into social contracts in order
to create a just society with a central authority (the state). Just society respects and protects natural rights: the
rights to life, liberty, and property. The state can be overthrown if it fails to protect rights.

 At the foundation of Immanuel Kant's system is the doctrine of “transcendental idealism,” which emphasizes a
distinction between what we can experience (the natural, observable world) and what we cannot
(“supersensible” objects such as God and the soul). Kant argued that we can only have knowledge of things we
can experience.

SOCIALIZATION

 Socialization refers to the social processes through which the individual develops an awareness of social norms
and values and achieves a distinct sense of self.
 Classic theoretical perspectives on socialization: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic
interactionism.

 Structural Functionalism - Socialization is a top-down process. Children learn how to be a part of society by
internalizing social rules and values through socialization and learn to conform to the roles and expectations of
society.

 Conflict Theory - The individual’s behavior and social relations result from the underlying conflicts that exist
between competing groups.

 Symbolic Interactionism- The individual actively participates in his/her socialization through his/her
connections with other people.

1. Humans act toward things based on the meanings they assign to them
2. The meaning of things is derived or arises from social interactions between people
3. Individuals use an interpretative process to understand and modify meanings