THE INTERHUMAN AND ITS

ELEMENT

 Martin Buber is an Austrian born israli, he is

best known for his “Philosophy of Dialogue”.
According to Buber, there are two essential
different areas of human relationship. The
Social Relationship and The Interhuman.
 Social Relationship is enclosed in a group existence.
Great example of this is A is a Filipino and B is also
Filipino thus, they are social relation because they are both
Filipinos.
 Now in Interhuman, Buber explains that it happens only when a
person became aware of the other as a unique individual. He also
adds that the Realm of interhuman goes beyond living and sharing
experiences together. Interhuman goes beyond belonging to a
particular group that is why it is based on I thou relation.
 I thou relation is not a means to some object or goals but a
definitive relationship involving the whole being of each subject, it
has no barriers.
 Buber stated that must be a Genuine Dialogue in the interhuman, but it
can only open out through the Elements of Interhuman. Genuine
Dialogue means to pretention and simultaneously.
 What are these 3 elements? These are Being, Personal making present
and Unfolding.
 The first element is Being, it means being truthful and honest
to oneself, he/she relates with other in a spontaneously ways
with out reservation. He does not pretend and not concerned
by the way she projects others, they are the “Totoong Tao”.
The opposite of being is seeing, these are those who pretends
and conceal there true self from others, they are the “Plastic
People”.
 The second element is the personal making present. This
element are more on acceptance of the other as a unique
person. The acceptance and confirmation is possible only
when one makes the other personally present to him,
example of this is when A putting herself in B situation,
able A to understand what B has been going thru.
 The third element is Unfolding. For Buber there are two
ways affecting the views and attitudes of other people,
these are imposition and unfolding.
 Imposition people are the one try to force their opinion/ideas and
point of view to other person, in such way that the result of his/her
acts comes out.

 While in Unfolding, people here try helping others thru

encouraging them and let them realized their own ideas and
thoughts, believing on their own potential to succeed.
Fidelity, constancy and Presence

 Next topic is Fidelity, Constancy and Presence, how do

they connect each other? In a ordinary language, fidelity is
usually associated with faithfulness, demonstrated with
continuing loyalty and related to commitment.
 While Constancy may be understood as perseverance in
attaining a certain goal or purpose. It may also be
understood as immutability or being unchangeable .
 How fidelity and constancy do differentiate? Fidelity
requires more than just constancy overtime and according to
Gabriel Marcel it implies another element which is Presence.
 Presence should not be understood as always being
physically present for the other, it involves making the other
feel that one is with the other. For Marcel, it means that the
self is “given” to the other, and that what is given is
responsively received or reciprocated. For example a father
who is working overseas may be not be physically present in
the family, but he makes his presence fell by fulfilling his
obligations and their constant communication on special
occasion.
 According to Marcel, if one’s presence is simply based
on the idea of duty and one simply wants to be the
person of friend he/she must be like a faithful and
dutiful friend/spouse/good father then this sense of
fidelity as constancy based on duty or obligation can
hardly be a genuine fidelity to other. A genuine fidelity
to Marcel is one that is based on spontaneity or
unplanned, that faithful that is not coercive but rather
independent of the will.
 Remember that constancy that is based on duty or
obligation alone cannot prosper into a genuine
fidelity. Marcel also believe that the pledge to fidelity
is based on some inner disposition. But one must
know that his/her inner disposition could change in
the course of time. One may feel so inspired today so
he/she pledge loyalty and faithfulness, one may not
feel inspired the following day and because of these
the promise to be faithful which was made today may
change tomorrow.