Intersubjectivity
Lesson Objectives
• Understand intersubjectivity
• Appreciate the talents of persons with
disabilities and those from underprivileged
sectors
Key Questions
• What does it mean to be “humans”?
• How does one’s relationship with fellow
human beings help him understand and
enrich his own humanity?
Intersubjectivity
• We are part of society yet we are still different
individuals living in this society with different
appearances or points of view.
• Labels could be negative or limiting but we could go
beyond the labels because as humans we are
holistic.
• We can redesign the labels to something new and
exciting.
The Social Dimension of the Self
• Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla believed in the notion
of concrete experience/existence of the human
person and that one must not lose the sight of one’s
self in concrete experience.
• Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla view the human
person as total, not dual nor a composite of some kind
of dimensions.
• For Wojtyla, the social dimension is represented by
‘We relation’ and for Buber, the interpersonal is
signified by the ‘I-You relation.’
• Buber conceives the human person in his/her
wholeness, totality, concrete existence and relatedness
to the world.
The Social Dimension of the Self
• Wojtyla maintains that the human person is the one
who exists and acts (conscious acting, has a will, has
self-determination).
• For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the human
agent and participation explains the essence of the
human person.
• The human person is oriented toward relation and
sharing in the communal life for the common good.
• Buber’s I-thou philosophy is about the human person
as a subject, a being different from things or from
objects, who have direct and mutual sharing of selves.
• In contrast, the I-It relationship is a person to thing,
subject to object relationship.
Talents and Contributions of PWDs
and Underprivileged
On PWDs
• Reactions of parents of PWDs: shock, bewilderment,
sorrow, anger, guilt, feeling of impotence, fear of the
future.
• Realization and grief can blind parents to their child’s
uniqueness.
• Categories of PWD or persons with disabilities:
hearing impaired, diabetic, asthmatic, or cystic
fibrotic persons.
Talents and Contributions of PWDs
and Underprivileged
• A study shows that mothers of asthmatic children
scored consistently more positively than any other
groups of mothers; fathers of asthmatic and cystic
fibrotic children had higher parent attitudes and
were more sociable than the other fathers; and
parents of hearing impaired youngsters had the
highest problematic scores.
• Parents of cystic fibrotic kids reported the most
special problem areas as well as the highest levels of
family importance.
• Parents of hearing impaired children have more
behavior management issues.
Talents and Contributions of PWDs
and Underprivileged
• A study in North America shows that 50% of deaf
children read less than the normal children.
• A spirited perceptive child will notice everything
going on around her but will be able to process that
information quickly and will be able to select the
most important information to listen to.
• An ADHD child will find it difficult to focus or
complete a task, despite her best efforts.
• Negative attitudes of the family and community
toward PWDs may add to their poor academic and
vocational outcomes.
Talents and Contributions of PWDs
and Underprivileged
• Community sensitivity, through positive and
supportive attitudes toward PWDs, is also an
important component.
On Underprivileged
• Poverty is not one-dimensional but multidimensional.
• Each of these dimensions has the common
characteristic of representing deprivation that
encompasses: Income, Health, Education,
Empowerment, Working condition
• The most common measure of the underprivileged is
income poverty.
Talents and Contributions of PWDs
and Underprivileged
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Another important measure of deprivation is poor
health.
Human rights are also relevant to issues of global
poverty in its focus on shortfalls in basic needs.
On the Rights of Women
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712) said that women
should be educated to please and be useful to men.
• For Mary Wollstonecraft, women must be united to
men in wisdom and rationality.
• Women should be allowed to attain equal rights to
philosophy and education given to men.
Talents and Contributions of PWDs
and Underprivileged
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Women must learn to respect themselves and should
not allow others to determine their value in terms of
their physical beauty alone.
Women should oppose the gender role assigned to
them by the social order (reinforced by dominant
patriarchal institutions like the family, education,
the law, and the media) and instead advance the
alternative image of the woman aspiring for
liberation.
Women actively participate in movements that not
only seek empowerment for their sector but for
other marginalized groups as well.
Authentic Dialog
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According to Martin Heidegger, humankind is a
conversation, which is more than just an idle talk
but a dialog.
A dialog is a conversation that is attuned to each
other and to whatever they are talking about.
Conversation attempts to articulate who and what
we are, not as particular individuals but as human
beings.
For Buber, a life of dialog is a mutual sharing of our
inner selves in the realm of the interhuman.
An authentic dialog entails a person-to-person, a
mutual sharing of selves, acceptance, and sincerity
(I-thou relation).
Activities
1. Describe the I-It relationship compared to I-You. Cite
examples.
2. How do you react when you see persons with
disabilities and street children? Why?
3. Listen to Michael Jackson’s song entitled “Man in
the Mirror.” Based on the song, when does our own
image become that of our neighbors’?
4. Explain the following from the point of view of an
existentialist: “We are responsible for more than
what becomes of us; we are also responsible for
what becomes of others.”