Meaningful Interactions: I-It and I-Thou Relationships

• Being kind, with a special heart that listens, is more important than being right.
• It is important to maintain good relationships with family, friends, schoolmates, and community members, for productive, meaningful, and beneficial activities.

Engaging in Meaningful Interactions

• Understanding how to engage in meaningful interactions with others and the environment is key.
• According to Aristotle, humans are naturally social and seek companionship for their well-being.
• Baruch Spinoza stated that people derive more convenience than injury from social life.
• Humans have an innate desire to relate, but must first be aware of ourselves before relating to others.
• Dr. Paul Dordal stated in his 2018 article, that intersubjectivity respects the uniqueness and dignity of individuals while recognizing the elusiveness of objectivity.
• Martin Buber posited two main choices in defining our existence in his 1923 essay "Ich and Du."

I-It Relationship

• The I-It Relationship defines attitudes and intentions where one person sees another as an object for manipulation.
• The focus is on persuading through monologue which leads to self-centeredness, pretense, manipulation, and exploitation.
• People objectify the world and create inauthentic, utilitarian relationships where others are merely used.
• Paul Sartre, famously stated to never treat people like things.

I-Thou Relationship

• The I-Thou Relationship defines that people approach each other with respect, sincerity, and honesty, and engage in a reciprocal relationship.
• Buber defines an interhuman domain, as an opens space where dialogue unfolds, and individuals become "we".
• This is based on intersubjectivity and individuality.
• Individuals mutually confirm other people as being of unique value

Characteristics of Genuine Human Interaction

• Dialogue is possible when individuals recognize each other as genuine and unique
• Dialogue requires a good interpersonal relationship, unlike monologue (I-It).
• Dialogue is defined as a conversations where participants equally express and interpret messages.
• Monologue is communication where the communicator is the only participant, disregarding others' views.
• Human identity and destiny are shaped by relating with others through continual dialogue with the other.
• Empathy, availability, and ethics of care are important for achieving genuine and meaningful relations

Intersubjectivity and Relationship Across Differences

• Embracing diversity and accepting differences are vital values related to intersubjectivity.
• People's differences exist because each person is unique and shaped by different histories and social contexts.
• Recognizing shared humanity and dignity encourages extending assistance and concern, towards individuals or groups experiencing hardships and discrimination.
• Despite limitations, individuals with physical and mental challenges can possess the same skills and aspirations as others, and many successfully overcome their disabilities.

Various Advocacies Supporting Persons with Disabilities

• These people with disabilities who have successfully risen above their physical limitations include:
  • Helen Keller: An American author, political activist, and the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree.
  • Nicholas James Nick Vujicic: An Australian evangelist and motivational speaker born with phocomelia.
  • Roselle Ambubuyog: The first visually impaired Filipino to graduate summa cum laude from Ateneo de Manila University in 2001.

Various Advocacies Supporting Persons with Disabilities

• Paralympics: An international sports competition for athletes with disabilities, modeled after the Olympics.
• World Down Syndrome Day on March 21, World Autism Awareness Day on April 2.
• International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3.
• Countries celebrate these days to highlight individuals with disabilities and foster friendship and cooperation between "able" and "disabled" people.

Underprivileged Sectors of Society

• The underprivileged experience hardship and discrimination, primarily measured by income poverty, defined as a lack of goods and services

On the Rights of Women

• Jean Jacques Rousseau said in 1712 that women should be educated to please, care for, advise, and console men.
• Mary Wollstonecraft, a Vindication on the Rights of Women in 1782, argued that such education would create foolish women, calling for women to unite with men in wisdom and rationality.
• Wollstonecraft believes society should grant equal rights to philosophy and education.
• Women should learn to respect themselves to avoid dependence on beauty and marriage for support.