Intersubjectivity

Intersubjectivity

• Condition of man, a subject, among other men, who are also subjects

• refers to shared awareness and understanding among persons

• made possible by the awareness of the self and the other

Martin Buber

An Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher, best known for his philosophy of dialogue

social

refers to the life of a group bound together by common experiences and reactions

interhuman

• refers to the life between and among persons; it refers to the interpersonal, that is, a life of dialogue

Dialogue

• deep and genuine relationship between persons

• when two people truly acknowledge each other’s presence and treat each other as equals

Ich-Es (I-It) relationship

• refers to the world of experience and sensation, where there are objects

• beings do not actually meet

  • the ‘I’ confronts and qualifies an idea, or conceptualization, of the being in its presence and treats that being as an object.

  • INDIVIDUAL treats other things, people, etc., as objects to be used and experienced

  • in terms of self—how an object can serve the individual’s interest

    • relationship with oneself; not a dialogue, but a monologue

Ich-Du (I-Thou) relationship 

• refers to the world of encounters and relationships where there are persons

• concrete encounter without any qualification or objectification of one another 

• it is a dialogue 

seeming, speechifying, imposition

obstacles to dialogue

being, personal making present, unfolding

contrasted with

Seeming 

• way of approaching the other, governed by the image of one desires to impress on the other

• involves deliberately playing up or hiding aspects  of yourself to appear more desirable or impressive

being

• proceeds not from an image, but from what one really is

  • an acceptance of the other in the way that it is also an acceptance of the self as it is

Speechifying 

• refers to one’s talking past another 

  • is hearing without listening to what one says 

personal making present

process of fully opening oneself to the other

Analytical, reductive and derivational thinking

tendencies that make dialogue and personal making present difficult

analytical thinking 

when we break person into parts 

Reductive thinking

reduce richness of a person to a schema, a structure, and /or a concept

Derivational thinking

derive the person from a mixed formula

Imposition 

• constitutes holding one’s own opinion, values, attitudes and oneself without regard for those of another

  • telling the other how he or she should act, behave and respond to things 

Unfolding 

• finding in the other the disposition toward what one recognizes as true, good and beautiful 

• seeing the other as a unique, singular individual capable of freely actualizing himself/herself 

The Art of Loving (Fromm, 1956)

• we give more importance to being loved that to loving

• people think that to love is easy and what is difficult is to find the right person to love or be loved by

• we confuse the initial falling-in-love with the permanent state of being-in-love

loneliness

one of the most basic experiences of the human being because of self-awareness

escapism, conformity with groups, creative and productive work or activity

ways by which people address loneliness

escapism

Use of drugs, rituals, sex, and alcohol to find one’s self

Conformity with groups 

joining group, organization, club, or farternity

creative and productive work or activity

planning, producing and seeing the result of a hobby, pastime or passion

love is historical, total, eternal and sacred

essential characteristics of love

love is historical

because the other is a concrete particular person with his/her own being history

love is total

persons are indivisible

love is eternal 

not given only for a limited period of time 

love is sacred 

love persons are valuable in themselves