LESSON 3 INTERSUBJECTIVITY

In the parable, it is hard to imagine that a Samaritan would help a Jew since he is
considered by the Jewish society as an outcast. But what happened was the other way
around – he helped the Jew despite their differences and the unfair treatment to him.
This story clearly explains how a man can go beyond cultural considerations and how
one can overcome grudges to performing an ethical act towards a needy person.

It may be considered an unusual phenomenon in the present social realm but

the story tells us it is never impossible. Like the Good Samaritan, you may have
encounter strangers who need help. If there any incidents you happened to help
somebody unknown to you, please narrate your experience below. Tell how you
overcame your fear of strangers and what made you decide to help the person. But if
you don’t have any experience, tell us what you would do if you encounter one and why
would you help them.

The Phenomenology of Inter-subjective Relationship

INTERSUBJECTIVITY = it is the condition of man, a subject, among other men, who

are also subjects.

Subject vs Object

According to Martin Buber, an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher best known for
his philosophy of dialogue,

“The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing

of one of its beings.”

Intersubjectivity is the condition of man, a subject, among other men, who are also
subjects. It refers to the shared awareness and understanding among persons. It is
made possible by the awareness of the self and the other.

Social vs Interhuman = the social refers to the life of a group bound together by
common experiences and reactions. The interhuman refers to the life between and
among persons; it refers to the interpersonal, that is, a life of dialogue.

“Men feel themselves to be carried by the collectivity, which lifts them out of loneliness
and fear of the world and lostness,” says Martin Buber.
Dialogue refers to the deep and genuine relationship between persons. It happens
when two persons truly acknowledge each other’s presence and treat each other as
equals.

Buber’s I-thou philosophy is about the human person as a subject, a being different
from things or objects. The human person experiences one’s wholeness, not in the
virtue of his relation to oneself. In other words, a person finds meaning and purpose in
the world on how and why he relates with the people, objects, and experiences in the

The world he belongs to. The human person establishes the world of mutual relation, of
experience. The human persons as subjects have direct and mutual sharing of selves.
This signifies a person-to-person, subject-to-subject relation or acceptance, sincerity,
concern, respect, dialogue, and care.

Buber believed that a human being does exist in isolation and separation from the
situations and people around him. Instead, every man, woman, and child is deeply and
extensively connected. This implies that for a person to truly understand himself and the
world, he must reach out to others and understand them.

In contrast to the realm of meeting and dialogue, Buber cited the I-It relationship. This
I-It relationship is a person to a thing, subject to object that is merely experiencing and
using; lacking directedness and mutuality (feeling, knowing, and acting). An example of
the I-It relationship is the socioeconomic plight of Filipino women and children. Sexual
harassment and oppression are crimes against women and children that continuously
escalate. For example, children are sexually exploited by foreign tourists with the full
knowledge of their parents, in exchange for cash.

EXPLAINING THE AUTHENTIC DIALOGUE THAT IS ACCEPTING OTHERS

REGARDLESS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

n his essay, Martin Heidegger said that human is a conversation. The conversation is
more than an idle talk but a dialogue. This means that humanity is progressively attuned
to communication about its being. Language, as one of the human possessions, creates
the human world. A language is a tool for communication, information, social interaction.
However, language can also be amazing.
A dialogue is a conversation that is attuned to each other and to whatever the
participants are talking about. Mutual tuning is perfected in attunement.

For Heidegger (1997, all conversations are one conversation, the subject of which is
Being (maybe God or Tao). A conversation, which Heidegger envisaged, is creative,
poetic, and deep that allows humanity to exist as more than entities.

For Buber, a life of dialogue is a mutual sharing of our inner selves in the realm of the
interhuman. Between two persons is a mutual awareness of each other as persons
avoiding objectification. Being is presenting what one is to another one’s real self.
Personal making entails the affirmation of the other as a person who is unique and has
a distinct personality. There is the acceptance of the person; unfolding the other
actualizes himself.

An authentic dialogue entails a person-to-person, a mutual sharing of selves,

acceptance, and sincerity. This relationship is the I-Thou relation. The human person
attains fulfillment in the realm of the interpersonal, in meeting the other; thus, there is a
genuine dialogue. With this, we share in the humanness of the other. We cannot escape
a world that is also inhabited by others.

Intersubjectivity is a coined word from the prefix “ïnter” which connotes “among and
between”, and the philosophical term “subject” that is equivalent to a conscious
being. Thus, intersubjectivity would mean in the general sense as “sharing of the
subjective states by two or more individuals”. (Scheff 2006). It is the organic union of the
subjective reality and the objective reality of beings. Meaning to say, as a person, we
have personal regard for ourselves, but we cannot deny the fact (Objective-fact of
reality we all share) that we live with others, so we also regard them as part of
ourselves. We tend to place ourselves in others’ shoes and relate to them in good ways
as possible like what is shown in the comic strip below: