INTERSUBJECTIVITY

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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 necessary first to define the term
subjectivity – i.e., the perception or experience of reality
from within one’s own perspective (both conscious and
unconscious) and necessarily limited by the boundary or
horizon of one’s own worldview.
INTERSUBJECTIVITY •It 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
rejections.
• The interhuman refers to the
life between and among
persons; it refers to the
interpersonal, that is, a life of
dialogue.
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.
Intersubjectivity as Ontology: The Social
Dimensions of the Self
 Martin Buber and Karol Wojtylas
• Influenced by religious background, the believed in the notion of
concrete experience/existence of the human person.

• They also think that one must not lose the sight of one’s self in
concrete experience.

• They both refused to regard the human person as a composite of

some kind of dimensions, such as animality and rationality.

• Human person is total not dual.

MARTIN BUBER • He is a Jewish existentialist philosopher.
• He was born in Vienna and was brought
up in the Jewish Tradition.
• In his work I and Thou, he conceives
that human person in his/her wholeness,
totality, concrete existence and
relatedness to the world.
• I-thou philosophy is about person as a
subject, who is a being different from
things or from object.
• The human person experiences his wholeness not in
virtue of his relationship to one’s self, but in virtue of his
relationship to another self.

• The human person establishes the world of mutual

relation of experience.

• I-It relationship is a person to thing, subject to object

that is merely experiencing and using; lacking
directedness and mutuality (feeling, knowing, and
acting)
Karol Wojtylas or Saint Pope John Paul II
• Born in Wadowice, Poland. He was
elected to papacy on October 16,
1978(264th pope).

• He was considered as great pope

(88%) during his lifetime.
He was an architect of communism’s
demise in Poland.

• He criticized the traditional

definition of human as “rational
animal”
• He maintains that the human person is the one who
exist and acts (conscious acting, has a will, has self-
determination).

• Action reveals the nature of the human agent.

Through participation, the person is able to fulfill one’s
self.

• Human person is oriented towards relationship and

sharing in the communal life for the common good.ADD
THE END