WHAT IS INTERSUBJECTIVITY?

Intersubjectivity - the experience and meaning of the interhuman encounter.

- opens us up to the nature of commitment, the value of others, and the reality of love as
the highest form of recognition.

The Myth of Soulmates:

● Humans before had four arms and 4 legs; a head with two faces. (Greek Myth)
○ Zeus split them.
● 3 genders:
○ Man - children of the Sun
○ Woman - children of the Earth
○ Androgynous - man-woman (two sets of genatalia); children of the Moon
● Humans are very powerful before, fearless and strong, and even dared to threat the Gods,
so Zeus decided to punsih them and split them in half.
○ Apollo, God of music, truth and prophecy, healing, and light, could not bear see them
like this, so to ease their pain, he sewed them up, reconstituted their body forms and
just left the navel as the only reminder of their original form. So, humans went from
double face and double sex creatures with eight limbs, to single faced ones of a single
sex, with two arms and two legs.
● Other theories state that the souls separated into the two genders could be due to their incurred
karma of their existence on Earth, or due to their “separation from God”.
● Home is not a place, it is a feeling.

Lesson 1: On Dialogue
Martin Buber - Jewish Philospher on dialogue

- offer s a distinction between the social and the interhuman.

Social and Interhuman:

The Social - refers to the life of a group bound together by common experiences and reactions.

● points to group or communal existence.

● you are free to choose your partner (?)

The Interhuman - refers to the life and between among persons, who are on-interchangeable and non-
objectifiable.

● refers to the interpersonal - a life of Dialogue

● A relationship between the I-Thou
● The interhuman can happen even to persons with opposing view in life; two competing
politicians or same with their supporters.
 ● kailangan mag-usap for us to understand each other.

The I-it and I-Thou Relationship: 2 Kinds of Relationship

I - 1st person

Thou - second person

1. I-It Relationship

I-It Relationship - the world of experience and sensation where there are objects.

I-it relationship - impersonal, detached, functional, scientific.

● not give and take; one-sided (aww)

● things are valued because of the purpose that we put into them
● it is purely empirical
● things do not have intrinsic moral worth
● A thing is used or functional bc it serves as the purpose of man
● No basic capacity to make moral choice
● their value is something that is bestowed upon them b their creators or owners.
● If a person considers his/her fellow as an object
● examples
○ A man and his bike
○ manggagamit people

2. I-Thou Relationship

I-Thou Relationship - the world of encounters and relationships where there are persons.

- The partner in all truth.

- To turn to the other in all truth is the same as imagining the real, that is,
accepting the whleness of the other.
- To confirm the other does not mean approval of the other, but recognition of
the other as other. - if you disagree with the person, you can still accept him as
your partner in genuine dialogue, bc you affirm his/her being.

I-Thou - personal, emotive (dialogical)

➔ Persons relate and communicate with each other as they really are, in truth.
➔ A relationship is based on TRUTH of what one is, and not based on what one desires to be
perceived for his own benefit.
➔ What is natural for the human person? Seek confirmation of his/her being; it is a yes that is
coming from the other in recognition of who he/she is.
➔ An acceptance of the other in the way that it is also an acceptance of the self as it is. e
● reciprocated (?)
● e.g. religious experience
 ● Buber described God as an "Eternal Thou"
● Refers to the world of encounters and relationships where there are persons
● makes the other complete
● always thinking about the others.
● DAPAT MAGKASUNDO
● Persons relate and communicate with each other as they really are, in truth.
○ there are no need for masks and perhaps pretentions or the desire to evoke in the other
a particular impression
● It is a relation based on the truth of what one is, and not based on what one desires to be
perceived for his own benefit.
● always for your good and for the good of the others.

Mga Hadlang sa Tunay na Diyalogo/Three Obstacle to Dialogue

1. Pagiging-waring tao (seeming) na iba sa pagpapakatao (being) // the way of seeming that is
contrasted to the way of being.
● Operated on the level of impression
● Proceeds from what you wish to seem, or to appear as something other than yourself,
for your own interests.
● A way of approaching the other governed by the image one desires to impress on the
other; in these senses of deliberately playing up or hiding aspect of yourself to appear
more desirable or impressive.
● Seeming - self interest, inauthentic self
● being - who you are, truth, authetic self
● Pagbabalat-kayo
● People resorts to the way of seeming because it is quicker and easier than i-thou
relationship na kailangan mong magpakatotoo at ng acceptance.

2. Pagtatalumpatian (Speechifying) - opposit ng pagpapaharap sa personal (personal making present)//

speechifying that is contrasted to the act of personal making present.

➔ Speecifying - refers to one’s talking past another

● It is hearing without listen to what one says, which, for Buber, constitutes an
impassable wall between partners in conversation.
● Buber points that we should recognize the person is different from us, that
he/she is unique, and may even have opposing views from mine.
○ This awareness allows the human person to perceive the other’s
wholeness in the sense of being an embodied spirit.
● e.g. propagandists (to get the attention of many for their own benefit)

3. Pagpapataw (Imposition) - opposite of pagpapatubo (Unfolding)// imposition, which this can be

contrasted to unfolding.
 ➔ Imposition - constitutes holding one’s opinion, values, attitudes, and oneself without regard for
those of the other.
◆ It is telling the other how he/she should act, behave, and respond to things.
➔ Unfolding - constitutes finding in the other, the disposition toward what I, myself, recognize as
true, good, and beautiful.
◆ Is i am true, good, and beautiful, it is also the case with the other person.
● command
● pag hindi ginawa, may consequence.
● Unfolding - presenting all the good things and finding all the good denominator(?)

Martin Buber: ang likas na hangad ng tao ay ang matanggap ng iba batay a kung sino siya talaga.
Subalit dahil parang mas madaling makakuha ng pagtanggap sa kapwa kung magwawaring-tao
(seeming) na laman, may mga taong pinipiling itago ang kanilang tunay na sarili at humarap sa kapwa
sa paraan na pagwawaring-tao.

can one build a genuine relationship through and in social media?

LESSON 2: ON LOVE
Manuel B. Dy - ayon sakanya, ang isang penomenolohiya ng pag-ibig ay nagsisimula sa
pagpapanaklong (Epoche) upang pansamantalang masuspinde ang anumang mga ordinaryong ideya
nating tungkol sa pag-ibig.

● isa sa mga pangunahing maling kuro-kuro tungkol sa pag-ibig ay may kinlaman sa pananaw na
nagsasabing isa itong nakalulugod na pakiramdam na ating kinahuhulugan (Falling in Love)
● The experience of love begins from the experience of loneliness, a human experience.
○ The adolescent life is somehow crucial since one is too old to be identified with the
child and too young to be considered as an adult, he feels misunderstood, unwanted,
and alone. That is why often, an individual seeks for understanding and acceptance.
○ Loving encounter: meeting of persons
■ Two/more persons who are free to be themselves choose to share themselves
(with each other).
● I-Thou Communication - a communication of selves.
● Love is not only about the other, it is also an authentic concern with myself. The appeal of the
lover to the beloved is not compelling, dominating, or possessing the other. Instead, love wills
the other’s freedom in the other’s own self-becoming.
● The value of the other is his or her being a unique self.

From this nature of love as disinterested giving of the self to the other as other, we can conclude
with the characteristics of love.

-IZ like when you love someone, you are willing to give all yourself to them, but you should not
forget about your self too.

Erich Fromm- The Art of Loving, 1956:

We often misunderstood love because we focus more on attracting, rather than giving love. It is also
most commonly understood as an object, rather than as a faculty. Another, there is a confusion between
the initial stage of falling-in-love and the permanent state of being-in-love. (the magical initial stage is
mistaken for the more stable stages)

Ganito ang pangkaraniwang pagtingin natin sa pag-ibig:

1. Mas pokus sa pagtanggap kesa sa pagbibigay ng pag-ibig

2. Pagturing sa pag-ibig bilang isang bagay imbis na isang kakayahan
3. Ang inisyal na hugto ng pag-ibig ay hindi permanente.

<aside> st paul: there are three things that last:

1. Faith
2. Hope
3. Love </aside>

The experience of love begins from experience of loneliness (Dy, Jr.,)

Context of Loneliness

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

● An experience of separation - painful
● This means that deep in the human person is a need to overcome this loneliness to dine "at-
onement" (pakikipag-buklod o pakikiisa)

According to Dy, while they may adress the problem of loneliness in the sense of a fundamental
separation from things (by making us part of things - pleasure, camaraderie, hobbies), they do not
address loneliness understood as a longing for at-onement with another

The loving encounter holds the possibility for at-onement with an other while remaining to be itself

What is Love?
● it can only be performed in FREEDOM
● TRUE LOVE is grounded in the willingness of the individual to share and fully realize the
meaning of life by being with someone
● the OTHER - sole motive of love (i-thou)
○ not reducible to an objective reality
○ the most important and not the attributes or qualities
● True Love - the other finds not only comfort but a life of fulfillment
● Sense of Joy - a personal growth that each finds by being with the other when both are truly in
Love.
● Love is an implication that there is a need to recognize the otherness of the others necessitates
patience, because the rhythm of growth of the others takes time, and its pace may be different
from mine.
○ In love, there is: ACCEPTANCE & PATIENCE
Love as Commitment

● M. Scott Peck: Feeling Vs. Commitment

○ Love is not a feeling
■ Feelings are temporary reaction to transitory moments
■ it is a COMMITMENT transcends any feeling-state
● Max Scheler: Feeling VS. Emotion
○ It is an emotion - rooted on one's concrete experience
○ Not feeling-states - subject to changes of man's environment
● Transcending the feeling-state
○ Marcel: Making a promise
■ Things dont make promises. Only human beings (I-thou and I-it relationship)
■ Ergo, making a promise to someone implies a spontaneous and concrete
willingness to commit oneself
■ Not just a fulfillment of an obligation
● The real commitment to someone can only be performed as a free act
● Without this, the act is simply done out of the desire to protect one's self-image or reputation
● It does not address the need of the other.
● Fulfilling the promise and doing something else
● Still fulfilling the promise, and yet within me I actually want to do something else (insincere) -
just an obligation; walang commitment
● It is no longer free, it is subject to the control/influence of external factors. - obligation

Authentic Commitment

● grounded in one's honesty

● It is sincere
● Love: Presence of persons in every man-to-man encounter

Presence

● communion between two beings

● It is beyond constancy and compromise
○ Constancy
■ maintaining an image
■ one is not truly concerned about others
○ Compromise
■ grounded in temporariness, in fear and uncertainty of things which make the
idea of love unconditional'

True Love

● ultimate act of human freedom

● never conditional
● when two people are in love, they create a world, and nothing can destroy that world.
● Marcel: presence goes beyond my physical existence. Two persons become one
○ Real love is external
■ death only destroys physical state of one's being, but if they are one, TRUE
LOVE defies death
 ○ that - my love is destructible
○ thou - my love is freed from the destructible nature of things.
■ it is always for the sake of the beloved (?)

Lesson 3: The Human Person and the Society

A human person is created out of love for love

A human exist to relate with others.

The Human Person and the Society

1. Man as a Social Being (Plato and Aristotle)

➢ The person is by nature a social being because he/she has the tendency to go out of himself or
herself to form bonds and relationship with others.
➢ Throught a person’s life, he/sje experiences a variety of relationships that help shape him or her
as a person.
➢ However, through the evolution and transformation in our society, this idea of coming together
to form a community or a society, expound its means, meaning and ways. People coming from
different walks of life are coming together because of seeing one another as a companion.

— Plato's Tripartite Soul

1. Appetitive part (physical) - responsible for our baser, physical needs

- Drives you to eat, have sex, and protect yourself.
2. Spirited part (emotional) - responsible for our passion for virtues
- How feelings fuel your actions
3. Rational part (logical) - responsible for truth and wisdom
- Seeks truth and is swayed by facts and arguments

A well ordered human knows how to use the tripartite soul accordingly without interfering with or
disrupting the functions and powers of other faculties

-being fine is a good start in describing and introducing yourself.

The Republic: The Society has Three Classes

1. Rational Part - class guardians - those that rule

1. government
2. political leaders
2. Spirited Part - Class of soldiers - those who protect
3. Appetitive Part - Class of merchants and commoners.
II. Philosophizing about the Social
“The alienation of man thus appeared as the fundamental evil of capitalist society.” - Karl Marx

Society - a group of individuals united together with a definite end in view.

- A web social relationship.

- The nucleus of the society is a man
- A dynamic organization of purpossive individuals.

Social Philosophy tries to find out the basic laws which operate in the society and influence human
relations.

- Its aim consists in discovering the meaning of the actual mode of existence.
- The rapid development in physics, mathematics, and mechanics in the 17th
century has greatly impacted Social Philosophy.
- It exposed the drawbacks of social institutions and set forth iddeals for
the guidance of conduct in society.
- 19th and 20th century - social philosophy became more comprehensive and
systematic. Its aim to interpret society with reference to the essential social
unity of mankind.
- The philosophy of human relations in the society.

Social Philosophy - seeks to explain the nature of society in the light of the principle of social solidarity
(acc. Mackenzie)

- Aims at the interpretation of society with reference to the norm of “social

unity”

F.W. Blackmar: Social Philosophy is based upon the general facts of society. It makes general
observations on the nature of society. Social Philosophy and Social Sciences are closely connected.

Morris Ginsbeg: Social Philosophy aims at the formulation of the general principles of human behavior
through speculation on social phenomena.

Bertrand Russell: Social Philosophy seeks the conditions in which all the constructive tendencies of
man (such as love and sympathy), social marriage, and education can provide maximum possible
opportunities to produce the people who can save the world from future catastrophe.

● the philosophers discuss how to establish a society

● Karl Marx - a german philosopher, critic of political economy
○ pag-usbong ng mga revolutionary group
○ Karl Marx: Transformation of Societies
■ primitive communal society - nomads, walang permanent address
■ slave society
■ feudal society
■ capitalist society
Plato’s Republic

- Western civilization; traces of social philosophy.

Details:

★ Ideal society - Utopia

★ Classified the people of the society into three categories (as per their talents)
○ Rulers
○ Warriors
○ Workers
★ The Philosopher is the king.

Aristotle’s Social Philosophy - more realistic; the chief aim of the state is to produce good citizens who
can perform their ethical duties in a better way.

Macrotheoretical Microtheoretical

● focus on how societies transform, what ● discussions regarding the relation

kind there are, the structures and between the individual and the society
institutions, and forces involved in this focuses on individual intentions and
transformations and kinds of societies. actions
The forces that are present in this realm ● the focus and basic unit of anaysis is on
are also lare and impersonal for instance the small individuals and human nature
the power up states cultural traditions interpersonal and intersubjective
market forces and historical upheavals. relations ordinary and everyday
experiences.

The kinds of societies by the material history of Marx as well as the virtual communities we have now,
transformed the ways we have interrupted and will interact with one another. These societies have also
transformed the very ways by which we define aspects, goals mechanisms involved in communal and
social living communication transportation labor technology consumption and so on.

The Social as a Generation of Identity

Social Role - in a very real sense, you are shaped by the society in terms of your identity and values
that is you are a product of the social and historical forces that have been there before you were born
and will continue to be there after you are gone.

● who are you in this context is largely due to what surrounds you
● you are from start to finish a social being.
● The society is the soil where his 3 personalities is nurtured.

The society faces issues and problems that sometime may weaken the society that at most the objective
is to strengthen and build more strong societies between and among us.
III. The Necessity of Discourse
Discourse - a critical step back from the prepositions, belief systems, and values to which one has
become accustomed and try to take the perspective of everyone involved (Habermas, 1993).

- Come up a willingly shared perspective which can serve as the basis of their subsequent
moral claims. In doing so, we might be opened to the other ways of defining what is
good, jut, and desirable or have nothing to do with or conntribute to existence of life.
- Discourse is necessary in order to maintain justice, peace, and harmony.
- To remind the place of every individual in the family, in an organization, or in
a community.
- The opportunity to reveal agenda and objectives that fell out of line and need
some revisions or need to modify or strengthen.
● Jurgen Habermas - a german philosopher and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory and
pragmatism.
○ justification and application: discourse ethics (1993)
■ discourse requires a critical step back from the presuppositions, belief systems,
and value to which one has become accustomed and try to take the perspective
of everyone involved.
■ the point is to come up with a willingly shared perspective that can serve as the
basis of their subsequent moral claims.
■ According to him, being open to criticism minimize unjust and irrelevant
policies, procedures, and even rules.

Discourse - a way of our communication to better improve our society.

- It is in this way that we can open up our opinions and ideas with one goal - for a better
society if not the best.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

Social Contract Theory: every member of the society are to do their part/their role to give (back) to the
state.

● John Locke - government consent

○ there is supposed to be a government, and this is a higher authority.
○ sila mangangasiwa lahat ng isang activity or lahat ng activity sa state.
● Thomas Humps

mayaman yung isa, mahirap yung isa: may balance (daw)

● hindi dapat idedeprive yung mahirap sa mga rights niya, while for the rich, hindi dapat
ginagawang slave mga mahihirap

equality -equal yung pagbibigay

equity - bibigyan ng mas marami yung isa para pumantay sa isa.

The Human Person as Oriented Towards their Impending Death

The Crowd - tempts us to an inauthentic mode of existence.
- Life is nothing but linear, purposeless, and it does no thave meaning.

Man’s Finality - it only comes in death

- Man is no longer possible
- Death: the impossibility of man; where man loses his potentiality for being
- Man is alone in confronting the reality of his life as a being-towards-an end (Ang
kaatayan ay akin lamang)

The Authentic Being Towards Death - acceptance of human finitidue

- Death is a reality

Experience of Captivity - lose grip of…

Mortal Existence - realized in human freedom

- Acceptance (giving true value to life)
- May hangganan tayo, so malaya tayong gumawa ng mabuti.
ACCEPTANCE: “I have only one life, so I must devote this life towards the greater
actualization of a true sense of purpose and meaning.” -live your life to the fullest.

★ The Human Life is difficult and is full of suffering. But we rise above and see life as a
meaningful whole. Therefore, we will no longer fear death for we have lived a life that is
meaningful. A life that is worth living.

DEATH
- An ultimate test on how to live our lives
- Unites man with the ABSOLUTE (God)
- Love can only be realized in freedom and death is…
-

The Obstacles in search for life’s meaning:

1. The Problem of Evil - God is the ultimate goodness, which means that He gave man freedom
to make choices.
2. Secularism - religion should not play role in society; moral value proceeds from man.
- Religion wont be used para sindakin ang mga tao. Religion is always for the moral
value.

★ “Our lives no longer belongs to us alone; they belong to all those who needs us desperately.
★ Am I really free if philosophy keep on insisting that my existence is an existence for others?
That I am responsible for others.
★ It is always for the sake of others -> “your happiness is my happiness”

Our responsibility is only possible because of LOVE

“FAITH makes all things possible, while LOVE makes all things easy” - Dwight L. Moody

Jesus Christ - the perfect love; unconditional love

BIBLE VERSES:
➔ “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be
done.” - Luke 22:42
➔ “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.” - Romans 14:7-9

Suicide is bad. (tho binibless na daw ng Church yung mga nagsusuicide ngayon, unlike before)