I.

INTERSUBJECTIVITY

Intersubjectivity - subjective interaction between two persons or among more subjective minds
where there is an involvement of opinion.
Interobjectivity - means an agreement on experiences and observations without involving
emotions and feelings.

OBJECT SUBJECT

What is being experienced A personal experience of an action or event

Factually true Biased viewpoint

Treating a person as something Treating a person as important as self

Two Levels of Explanation on the Guide Question

1.Theoretical Level - considers how a person sees, perceives, understands.

2.Practical Level - considers how the person’s actions towards the other person relate to his/her
interests, desires, and preferences.

Concepts of Theoretical Level

a.Seeing another person as a Subject - sees someone as conscious and free and treated as a
person with equal respect.
b.Seeing another person as an Object - sees someone as something conscious and unfree and
treated as a nonperson, benefitted without respect.

Concepts and Categories of Practical Level

a.Treating Other Person as Means - one necessarily disregards the person’s interests. The
person is being to satisfy one’s interests.
b.Treating Other Person as an End - one necessarily considers the person’s interests by
sacrificing their own.

The Phenomenology of Intersubjective Relationship

1. Jurden Habermas (Theory of Communicative Action)

2. Martin Buber (I-Thou Relationship)
3. Confucius - one of the main ideas of Confucianism is Ren or “human-heartedness.”
4. Karol Wojtyla - aka St. John Paul II (Theory of Participation)
Theory of Communicative Action (Jurgen Habermas)

a) Comprehensibility - both speaker and hearer must use comprehensible expressions in

which they both understand. Pertains to the use of ordinary or native language in which
both speaker and hearer are familiar with.
b) Truth - where the speaker should use a true proposition so that the hearer can share the
speaker’s knowledge.
c) Truthfulness - where the speaker must be truthful in his intention to elicit trust from the
hearer.
d) Rightness - where both speaker and the hearer must agree on the right utterance with
respect to a recognized normative background.

I-Thou Relationship (Martin Buber)

a. “I-it” Mode (experience) - is the relation between subject and object, involving some form
of utilization or control, the object being wholly passive.
b. “I-Thou” (encounter) - designates a relation between subject and subject, a relation of
reciprocity and mutuality.

Dialogue

- It is a deep and genuine relationship between persons.

- It happens when two persons truly acknowledge each other’s presence and treat each
other as equals.

1. Seeming - it is a way of approaching the other governed by the image one desires to
impress on the other. It involves deliberately playing up or hiding aspects of yourself to
appear more desirable and impressive.
2. Being - It proceeds not from an image, but from what one really is. It is an acceptance of
the other in the way that it is also an acceptance of the self as it is.

OBSTACLES TO DIALOGUE CONTRASTED WITH

Seeming Being

Speechifying Personal making present

Imposition Unfolding
 3. Speechifying - It refers to one’s talking past another. It is hearing without listening to
what one says.
4. Personal making present - It is the process of fully opening oneself to the other.

OBSTACLES TO DIALOGUE CONTRASTED WITH

Seeming Being

Speechifying Personal making present

Imposition Unfolding

5. Imposition - It constitutes holding one’s own opinion, values, attitudes and oneself
without regard for those of another. It is telling the other how he or she should act,
behave and respond to things.
6. Unfolding - It constitutes finding in the other disposition toward what one recognizes as
true, good, and beautiful. It involves seeing the other as a unique, singular individual
capable of freely actualizing himself/herself.

OBSTACLES TO DIALOGUE CONTRASTED WITH

Seeming Being

Speechifying Personal making present

Imposition Unfolding

II. FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN PERSON

FREEDOM

-It is the ability to make choices and perform actions

-Rooted in the human person’s self determination and the exercise of intellect and free will
-It enables us to come up with new choices
-It is the power to be what you want to be and the ability to decide and create yourself
-It gives us the choice to undertake possible actions
-It requires a degree of control for the person who exercises it.

Freedom of Choice
>The ability to exercise one’s freedom in any manner.
Will - the power to choose
Intellect - is the power to know

Kinds of Freedom

1. Physical Freedom - refers to the absence of physical restraint.

2. Psychological Freedom - freedom of choice
3. Moral Freedom - using freedom on a manner that upholds human dignity and goodness

Elements of Freedom

A. Voluntariness - the ability of a person to act out of his or her own free will and
determination
a. Human Acts - with full knowledge of his own will
b. Acts of Man - eg. blinking of eyes, breathing, mannerisms etc.

Modifiers of Human Acts:

1. Ignorance - absence of knowledge in doing things
2. Fear - disturbance brought by apprehensions or anger
3. Passion - movement of sensitive appetite to perform acts
4. Violence - external force that compel people to do things against their will
5. Habits - repetition of actions decreases power to resist it.

B. Responsibility - refers to the person being accountable for his or her actions and their
consequences.

Actions and Consequences

>All our actions (spoken and physical) have consequences. Some are positive and some are
negative.
>Consequences are result or an effect of our actions

Prudence
>An act of making good judgement that allows a person to avoid risks
>It is important to be prudent at all times to prevent any harm that a decision may cause
III. HUMAN PERSON AND SOCIETY

Society - organized group of people whose members interact frequently and have a common
territory and culture

State - a political human organization that is sovereign and supreme in exercising its authority
within its territory.

Nation - refers to the group of people based on language, culture, ethnicity, and others.

Social System - consists of a plurality of individual actors interacting with each other in a
situation which at least has a physical environment or aspect.

Three Theories philosopher usually discussed to Provide Justification of the State

1. Divine Right Theory - claims that the king’s right to rule is absolute, for the kings does not
need approval of his constituents on exercising his political power.
2. Social Contract Theory - abstract contract that specifies the primary duties and obligations of
the citizens towards each other.
-If both parties fail, the state imposes punishment to its citizens or the citizens acquire the right
to change or overthrow their government.
3. Consequentialist Approach - ethical theory that judges whether or not something is right by
what its consequences are.

Types of Relationships in Society

1. Personal - observed through a communicative action, where people who share the same
interest acknowledge and commend each other.
2. Transactional - observed through an instrumental or strategic action, where people act
upon an assigned objective rather than a mutual connection.

Different Forms of Society

A. Pre Industrial Societies

1. Tribal Society - associates itself to meanings such as “primitive society”.
-Small on a scale. Bound to their spatial and temporal range of relations in terms of
society, law and politics.
2. Hunting and Gathering - small, simple societies in which people hunt and gather food.
3. Horticultural and Pastoral - larger than hunting and gathering societies.
-Horticultural grow crops with simple tools while pastoral societies raise livestock.
 4. Agricultural or Agrarian - grow a great number of crops, the use of plows, oxen and
other devices.
-wealthier and have a higher degree of conflict and of inequality than horticultural and
pastoral.
5. Feudal Society - a form of society in which the ruler or the lord owned all the land
while the farmers or laborers farmed it.
B. Industrial Society
-feature factories and machine
-wealthier than agricultural societies and gac a greater sense of individualism.
C. Post Industrial Society (Virtual/Computer)
- feature information technology and service jobs.
- Higher education is especially important in these societies for economic success.

IV. HUMAN PERSON AND DEATH

Death
>Separation of soul and body
>Indicates the limitation of human life
>Reveals the mortality of a human person

3 Major Approaches in the Understanding of the Meaning of Death

a. Cardiopulmonary Approach/ Heart-Lung Approach - explains that a person is dead when

the person’s heart and lungs have irreversibly ceased to function.
b. Whole Brain Approach - a person is dead when his/her entire brain has irreversibly
ceased to function.
c. Higher Brain Approach - a person is no longer conscious but still can breath on his/her
own.

Two Kinds of Death

1. Natural - normal death or biological death. This is when our bodies cannot sustain the
rigor of being alive.
2. Unnatural Death - human-made death.
- When people die due to human decisions and actions
Phenomenological Notion of Death - Martin Heidegger

1. Death is certain
2. Death is indefinite
3. Death is one's property
4. Death is non-relational
5. Death is not to be outstripped
V. PHILOSOPHY AND DISABILITY

Disability
>Diverse conditions as the congenital absence or adventitious loss of a limb or a sensory
function.
>Physical or a mental impairment that substantially limits one or more psychological or
anatomical function of an individual or activities.

Person with Disability

>Persons that have impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental,
physical, sensory or some combination of these.

Different Kinds of Disabilities

a. Intellectual Disability - characterized by an IQ below 70 and significant difficulty with

daily living such as self-care, safety, communication, and socialization.
b. Physical Disability - may affect, either temporarily or permanently, a person’s physical
capacity and/or mobility
c. Mental Illness - a general term that refers to a group of illnesses that significantly affects
how a person feels, thinks, behaves, and interacts with other people.