Schutz - Foundations of a Theory of Intersubjectivity Understanding

 Foundations of a Theory of Intersubjective Understanding

(189) The concept of the world  in general must be based on the concept of “everyone” and by extension, includes “the other.”

• The view for this essay is not looking at how the I constitutes itself from Ego.
• It will examine the human being who is looking at the world from a natural attitude.

(189-190) Man is born into a social world

• He takes the existence of others for granted, just as
• He takes the existence of the natural objects he encounters.
• The “Thou,” the other person, is conscious
• his stream of consciousness is temporal in nature
• and exhibits the same basic as mine.

(190) The Thou knows its experiences only through reflective acts of attention.

• The Acts of attention while shift and change with time.
• The other experiences its own aging.

(190) The Thou functions the same as me.

• It performs intentional acts.
• It bestows meaning.
• It selects items from its stream of consciousness and interprets them with other ideas and another context of meaning.
• It pictures a whole as Acts that took place step by step.
• It lays down meaning-contexts in layers,
• as it builds up its own world experience.
• It interprets lived experience, by given it
• Intended meaning.

(190) are unable to interpret meaning in the same meaning as the other, as

• Our lived experiences are different.
• There “here” and “now” and reflected against the the sum of their life experiences,
• Which we do not share.
• Our streams of consciousness would also have to be the same,
• but they are completely inaccessible to anyone else.
• We cannot precisely communicate our experiences.

(191) We understand others experiences through

• There expressions of their experience,
• which is signitive.
• and only when we take notice of the expressions.

(193-194) We flow through time together and age the same

• I’m able to understand someone else living through life,
• in the same manner I am.
• As such, I’m able to understand someone else writing, poetry, etc…
• who lived in another age.
• I’m able to understand their expressions because they are like my own.
• However, again, shared experiences are not exacting,
• They are interpreted differently based on the context we give them from our own life.

(195) we do not share the same wholly lived experience.

• Otherwise we would be the same person.
• We only catch segments along a continuum from the other person.
• And we place in context with our lived experience.
• We become aware of a segment and we situate from our own stand point.

(195) What I know of someones experience is completely based on my own lived experiences.

The Ambiguities in the Ordinary Notion of Understanding the other person.

(196) There is ambiguity in understanding the other

• and this amplified when we consider communication.
• We understand the signs someone is using, the sign itself.
• We understand what the person means by using the sign.
• And finally, the context of the sign in the here and now.

(196) Understanding is directed toward meaning,

• and all meaning is understood.
• Acts of Understanding: Interpretations of one’s subjective experience.

(197) We only understand one’s intended meaning.

• (200) Interpretive acts referring to another elf are interpretations of our own experience. 
• (202) In this context, thou becomes the other I.

Expressive Movement and Expressive Act.

(203) Expression is when someone projects outward the content of the consciousness.

(203) To the observer, 

• The body is a field of expression in which they watch the flow of one’s lived experiences.
• Through expressive movements and acts.

(205) - (210) Discussion on signs

• There are signs themselves,
• There are what the signs represent
• (210) And more, we have the ability to consider, question and re-interpret signs subjectively.
• We can create our own meaning from signs derived from the public sphere 

Meaning Establishment and Meaning-Interpretation.

• There is the objective measure of the sign 
• What it represents.
• There is the subjective measure of the sign
• Whit it represents in its current context.

(211) Verbal discourse

• Is constructed gradually, and over time,
• and is interpreted gradually, and over time.
• The whole conversation determines meaning-context
• and it can be furthered upon reflection.

(211) - (22)

Reference material pertaining to signs

• modes of interpretation
• The objective and
• the subjective

Schultz, Alfred. Foundations of a Theory of Intersubjectivity Understanding. The Philosophy of Communication. Cambridge: MIT Press. 2012. Pp 189-222. Print.