Intersubjectivity

Lesson Overview
◦Intersubjectivity is recognizing the otherness
of our neighbors despite their situation in
life.
◦Being human means we are in relation with
others human beings who might be
different from us.
◦The basis of Christian value of sensitivity to
the needs of others and gratitude is traced
in ‘loob.’
 Objectives
◦To understand intersubjectivity.
◦To appreciate the talents of persons
with disabilities and those from
underprivileged sectors.
◦To perform activities demonstrating the
talents of persons with disabilities and
those from the underprivileged sectors
of society.
 Intersubjectivity
requires accepting
differences and not
to impose on others.
When we label
or judge, we
limit people.
 When you judge
people, you don’t have
time to love them.
-Saint Teresa of
Calcutta
Intersubjectivity is
our ability to be in
an authentic
relationship.
Philosophers’ view on Intersubjectivity

◦Martin Buber
◦Karol Wojtyla
◦Emmanuel Levinas
 Martin Buber
◦A Jewish existentialist
philosopher.
◦Was born in Vienna,
Austria.
◦Famous work is “I and
Thou.”
 I and It
◦In this relationship, the person
becomes a thing; the subject
becomes an object wherein there is
no directedness, mutuality and
connection.
◦In this relatedness, personal
commitment does not exist.
Ex. Two strangers sitting side
by side in a bus.

Skin deep relationship or love

affair.
 I and Thou
◦Human person is a subject who is a being
which is different from things or from
objects.
◦Human person experiences his wholeness
not in virtue of his relation to one’s self, but
in the virtue of his relation to another self.
◦Human person establishes the world of
mutual relation.
 I and Thou
◦Human persons as subjects have direct and
mutual sharing of selves.
◦It is a person-to-person, subject-to-subject
relation or acceptance, sincerity, concern,
respect, dialogue, and care.
◦Human person is not just being-in-the-world
but being-with-others, or being-in-relation.
 Karol Wojtyla
◦A Christian philosopher.
◦Was born in Poland.
◦Was elected as the 264th
pope of the Catholic
Church last 1978.
◦“We relation”
 Karol Wojtyla
◦In his an encyclical letter, Fides et
ratio, he criticized the traditional
definition of human as “rational
animal.”
◦He maintains that the human person is
the who exists and acts.
 Karol Wojtyla
◦Participation explains the essence of
the human person.
◦Through participation, the person is
able to fulfill one’s self.
◦The human person is oriented toward
relation and sharing in the communal
life for the common good.
 Karol Wojtyla
◦St. Augustine of Hippo
once said, “No human
being should become
an end to him/herself.”
We are responsible to
our neighbors as we are
to our own actions.
Responsibil
ity for the
Other
A Phenomenology of the Face
 Emmanuel Levinas

◦A Jewish philosopher.
◦Was born in Lithuania.
◦Ethics of the Face
Who am I?
What does it mean to be
human?
What does it mean to be?
Who am I?
For Emmanuel Levinas, to be
human means to be responsible
for the “other”.
I am responsible, therefore,
I exist.
To Be
For Levinas, to be or not to
be is not the question.
To Be
In a world highly influenced by
the question of being – of identity
– as the highest concern, Levinas
disagreed.
To Be
“To be” is not the most
important thing in this world.
My existence is not the
center of the universe.
Responsibility
The ultimate value of my
life is the responsibility I have
for the other – a responsibility
that says I am you, and you
are me.
Responsibility
What is this responsibility?
It is a responsibility for the
other, that since the other
faces me, I am responsible for
him.
Responsibility
Ito ay isang responsibilidad
na ituring ang kapwa na hindi
iba sa’yo, dahil kapwa-tao mo
pa rin siya.
It is a responsibility to see
the other as someone not
different from the self.
Responsibility
To be responsible to the
other is to say: here I am. It is
to do something for the other –
to give, to be human spirit.
Responsibility
I am responsible for the
other. But is he also responsible
for me?
No.
Reciprocity
This intersubjective relation
is non-symmetrical.
I am responsible for the
other without waiting for
reciprocity.
Pagbalik
Ito ay paraan ng pagtingin
sa halaga ng kapwa tao, pero
hindi pagpapahalagang
“bakit ako lang?”.
Pagbalik
Hindi naman ako
gumagawa ng aksyon sa aking
kapwa para magkaroon siya
ng pananagutan sa akin.
Isang uring debosyon ang
pananagutan sa kapwa –
walang hinihintay na kapalit.
Reciprocity
To be responsible for the
other is a kind of devotion that
never expects anything in
return.
Response
The proper response,
therefore, is not of pride – at
having done something for the
other – but of gratitude, for the
other letting us fulfill our
responsibility.
Ultimately…
What makes you, you is
your responsibility for the
other.
What gives meaning to our
lives is our responsibility to the
other.
 “The face and the nakedness
of the other confronts me before
I even become conscious of my
being. The final judgment of what
I am comes not from myself; not
from how successful I am in my
place in the world. The final
judgment comes from the other.”
-EL
Last Judgment
Matthew speaks of the Last
Judgment:
“I was hungry and you
gave me something to eat, I
was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me.”
 This, according to Levinas,
is how we are going to be
judged.
 As Gabriel Marcel says,
“to be is to be with”.
Our existence is always
bound to the existence of the
other. We exist only in the
context of the other person.
 “Perhaps it is true that we
do not really exist until
someone acknowledges our
existence; that we do not
really speak until someone
understands what we say;
that we do not really live until
someone loves us.”
 Ethics of the Face

◦We cannot hurt others

because we could see
ourselves to them. Hurting
them is also a form of self-
destruction.