Intersubjectivity refers to shared meanings constructed through interactions between people and the mutual recognition of each other as persons. There are several ways people relate to others, including the "I-I relationship" where people see themselves as the center, the "I-It relationship" where others are objectified, and the ideal "I-Thou relationship" involving genuine sharing through dialogue and recognizing the other's humanity. Empathy, availability, and care for others are important for intersubjective relationships.

1. Intersubjectivity
Part 1
Lesson 13
Mr. Edward B. Noda Jr.

2. Intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity- It refers to shared meanings
constructed by people in their interactions with
each other.
Intersubjectivity is the philosophical concept of
the interaction between the “self” and the “other”.
It is the mutual recognition of each other as
persons.
It refers to the shared awareness, and
understanding among persons. It is made possible
by the awareness of the self and the other.

3. Jean Paul Sartre, explains that when you look at a
person, the act of objectification allows you to capture
that person’s freedom to be what he or she wants to
be. That is, you are limiting a person’s possibilities by a
look.
This is evident when you stereotype or label a person
based on his or her appearance or certain actions.
Jean-Paul Sartre

4. Totalization
● TOTALIZATION occurs when one limit the other to a set of rational
categories, be they racial, sexual or otherwise. One totalize the other
when one claim he/ she already know who is that person before they
can even speak to.

5. Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl believes that intersubjectivity is
more than just shared understanding, but it is the
capability to put oneself in the place where the
other is.
Intersubjectivity occurs when people undergo
acts of empathy because an intersubjective
experience is highly empathic. This happens when
people put themselves in the shoes of others.

6. driven by a person’s awareness
that the other is a person
thoughts and feelings.
● Empathy enables us to
experience another person’s
emotions, such as happiness,
anger, and sadness.
● Sympathy is “feeling with”, while
empathy is “feeling in”
● Empathy- the ability to share
emotions. This emotion is

7. ● Availability- the willingness of a
person to be present and be at
disposal of another.

8. The Ethics of Care is an ethical
theory that emphasizes the moral
dimension of relationship and
interactions.
This moral perspective
encourages individuals to help
other people, most especially the
vulnerable.

9. An advocate of individualism.
As a proponent of the doctrine of
individualism, he resolved to doubt
absolutely everything that could possibly be
doubted--in the hope of thereby finding
something that was beyond doubt. (“Doubt
everything that can be doubted”)
According to him there is one thing that
cannot be doubted, and that is thinking.
Rene Descartes

10. ● “Seeming”- actions where an individual presents himself or
herself in a certain way when dealing with others. Persons take
on “roles” or act out characters when dealing with certain
people or when in certain situations.
● There may be instances when people behave a certain way in
order to intentionally deceive or manipulate other people.

11. Most human interactions, however, are not
based on deception. Since our human nature
derives us to uphold dignity and goodness, our
interactions with others are also geared
towards what is good and beneficial.
These lead human to strive to achieve deeper
and more substantial interactions and relations
with other people.
This deeper and more genuine interaction is
called dialogue.

12. ● Dialogue- an interaction between persons that
happens through speech, expressions, and body
language.
● Dialogue is not confined to words alone, actions,
gestures and other expressions may be used to
convey a person’s inner life.
● A dialogue occurs when two persons “open up” to
each other and give and receive one another in
their encounter.

13. II-
Recognizing
and Relating to
Others

14. Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher had a great
interest in the study of relating ourselves to others.
He said that “I” or yourself, can only be realized
through recognition of “others.”
The “I” cannot be aware of its uniqueness and
existence without encountering the “other.”

15. Several ways by which werelate to others
(according to Buber)
The “I-I” relationship
“I-I” relationship in which people make themselves the center
of their world.
Talking to other people do not interest them and if they talk to
others, it is the “I” who will be the center of the conversation.
They don't really listen to what others are sharing.

16. “I-It” relationship
“I-It” relationship is the second type of relationship.
There are people that treat the other people into the status of
an object—an It.
Examples:
1. Researchers who have indigenous people as their
participants. They are very prone to reducing the other
into mere It, i.e. as mere objects of investigation.
2. In the medical field when practitioners look at their
patients as objects of investigation.

17. “I-It” relationship
There are also “I-It” relations where the I clearly has bad intent on the other,
treating the other as mere It or object.
Examples:
1. How oppressive employers treat their workers like machines or robots who
are immune to physical, verbal, psychological, and emotional abuse
2. Any relationship which has one party reducing the other to a status of an
object:
a) bully who treats a person with disability as an object of his amusement
b) a liquor company using body of women as their advertisement to improve
sales,
c) partners or friends treating each other as objects and means to satisfy their
self-interest and desires in so-called "friends with benefits" type of
relationships.

18. Objectification of women in advertising

19. “I-It” relationship
This kind of relationship results into what we call alienation.
It happens when human relationships are inauthentic, deceptive and
exploitative. It arises when a person ceases to view the other as a
distinct or authentic person and merely considers the other person
Alienation is a disorientating sense of exclusion and separation and
if left unaddressed, will discount the humanity and dignity of a
person that leads to dehumanization.
as a mere object or a means to satisfy personal interests.

20. “I-Thou” relationship
It is in this kind of human relations that genuine sharing of one another
takes place.
It is in this type of relationship that the other is treated as distinctly
other, the I treats the person as a Thou (You)—-as another person who is
different from the I; one has a different set of interests, visions, beliefs,
values, and characteristics.
The center of this relationship is a genuine form of conversation: a
dialogue.

21. Authentic dialogue is a form of
interpersonal communication which occurs
when people recognize that they are part
of a greater whole and can relate with
others within the whole.
In some cases, non-verbal dialogical
relations are not only the more appropriate
means of conversation, but considered as a
more profound form of conversation.
Authentic Dialogue

22. I-Thou relationship for Buber is the experience of being through
conversation in communion with the other; and here, the other may not
necessarily be a human being. It could be your dog, or your tree, or God.
In line with this, we must remember that a privileged form of
relationship is the I-Thou relationship. This relationship involves effort.

23. Conversation is more than just a simple talk but rather
a dialogue. It means that humanity is gradually
accustomed to communication about Being.
Language, as one of the controls of human, creates
human world. Language is a tool for communication,
information, and social collaboration.
For Heidegger, all conversations are really one
conversation, the subject of which is Being. A
conversation is creative, expressive, and profound
that allows humanity to exist as more than objects.
We are human beings who sincerely care more than
acquiring information and satisfaction.
Martin Heidegger argued that humankind is a
conversation.

24. According to Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”,
dialogue is the encounter between men, mediated by
the people in order to transform the world.
For him, dialogue is not just simply an interaction
between people to explore the world together, it is also
a sign of freedom, equality, and responsibility in
discovering and transforming the world of every human
being.
True dialogue cannot exist unless the partners engage in
love, humility, faith, trust, hope, and critical thinking.
Therefore, dialogue becomes the sign and the central
concept of the true education, “without dialogue there is
no communication, and without communication, there can
be no true education”.

25. Intersubjectivity is the
philosophical concept of
the interaction between the
“self” and the “other”. It is
the mutual recognition of
each other as persons.
Ways we relate to others:
1. “I-I relationship”
2. “I-It relationship”
3. “I-Thou relationship”
1. Empathy
2. Availability
3. Ethics of Care
Authentic Dialogue
Recap