INTERSUBJECTIVITY

PHILOSOPHY HANDOUTS No.
3
INTERSUBJECTIVITY
Karol Wojtyla
1. He is Pope John Paul II who made history in 1978 by becoming the first non-Italian pope in more than 400
years.
2. He was born on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland, ordained as priest in 1946, became the bishop of Ombi
in 1958, and became archbishop of Krakow in 1964.
3. He was a vocal advocate for human rights and used his influence to effect political changes.
4. He died in Italy in 2005 and was announced in July 20 as a saint in April 2006.
5. Considered one of the Catholic Church’s leading thinkers, he participated in the Second Vatican Council the
reviewed church doctrine in 1962.
Karol Wojtyla on Intersubjectivity
1. Individuality or the “I” - could be called the interior pole of our individuality, that by which we are awake and
alert to the world, and around which revolves all our unique and unrepeatable experiences of life and
activity.
2. Human creativity – thought as the basis of human creativity and the source of human culture. Thought he
says, it the basis for deriving truths from existing reality and for controlling reality.
3. Persons are self-giving and radically capable of: 1.) self-determination; 2.) self-possession; and 3.) self-
giving
a. Self-determination – the self determining power of the human person is not simply the ability of the
person to determine and the course of his life. In free action the person not only determines some
reality external to the self, but also simultaneously determines his own being.
b. Self-possession: self determination in virtue leads to ever greater degrees of self-possession. The
human person does not receive his being from the Creator as a static determined fact, but must,
through his own freely chosen activity, participate in its own definitive formation in a progressive ‘taking-
hold of itself.”
c. Self-giving: Though certainly an exalted property of the person, freedom not considered by either
Aquinas or Wojtyla as an end in itself. Rather, freedom is for love, ultimately the human person is
defined by love.
4. Rich understanding - we see why human person amongst all of visible created reality has pre-eminent
dignity. Dignity identifies a being uniquely worthy of respect.
5. Recognize the dignity of all persons – it is not the activity of the person that is of decisive importance, but
the being and nature of the person. According to the classical Aristotelian – Thomistic axiom: agree sequitur
esse or action follows being.
6. The human person does not receive his dignity, whether from another, or from his own store of talents and
actions, rather, the human person has dignity, just because of ‘what he is’ and ‘that he is”. A human being’s
worth does not depend on anything beyond the simple fact that he stands in existence.
7. The human person is the fulcrum around which the whole natural world rotates, and that to which it must
always return and serve. And this has consequences for contemporary human rights issues, including
abortion, euthanasia, human trafficking, war etc.
8. Person - it is precisely by virtue of this history of Christian thought that we have our colloquial usage of the
term person as a signifier of the human being in his unique individuality, a being with inalienable and
inviolable dignity.
Martin Buber
1. He is a Jewish existentialist philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism
centered between the “I-thou” relationship and the “I-it” relationship.
2. Born in Vienna, Austria on February 8, 1878 he spent most of his life in Germany and Israel, writing in
German and Hebrew, he is best known for his 1923 book, Ich und Du (I and Thou).
3. In 1902, he became the editor of the weekly Die Welt, the central organ of the Zionist movement, although
he later withdrew from organizational work in Zionism.
4. He was nominated for the the Nobel Prize in Literature ten times, and Nobel Peace Prize seven times.
5. On June 13, 1965 Martin Buber died.
Martin Buber on Intersubjectivity
1. Dialogical – in calling man’s relationship to God, dialogical Buber simply means to claim that man’s
relationship to God is based on dialogue or conservation.
2. Duty – is a moral, legal or religious requirement to either follow some course of action or to avoid it,
synonymous to obligation.
3. Ego – in Buber’s term for the “I” or the “I-it” pair.
4. Encounter – it is the neglected mode of engaging with the world. In encounter, one relates to the whole
being of the object encountered, and is transformed by the relation. The lack of encounter in modern society
has led to many social and psychological ills.
5. Experience – it is the name which Buber gives to modern man’s primary mode of engaging the world. In
experience one confronts one’s object as something to be used and known, rather than as something with
which to relate.
6. Person – in Buber’s term, it is the “I” of the “I-You” pair.
7. Responsibility – After revelation, duty and responsibility is a requirement that comes out of loving desire
rather than out of external, legal, moral or religious tenets.

INTERSUBJECTIVITY

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PHILOSOPHY HANDOUTS No.

Karol Wojtyla on Intersubjectivity

Martin Buber on Intersubjectivity

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