I-It versus I-Thou: Emily Tucker

 According to Martin Buber, an "I" is never isolated from an "other." It is either in an "I-It" relationship or an "I-Thou" relationship. "I-It" is compared to a third-person outlook that is always about the "I" in relation to an object ("it"). "I-Thou" is compared to a second-person outlook where it is two people talking face-to-face. "You" is not defined-- it is fathomless. The center is between the two individuals, opposed to the "I-It" where "I" is at the center. "I-Thou" is unmediated and without expectation. It is transaction-less. It allows for encounters to occur between people, whereas experience happens within an individual. Speaking "with" someone, opposed to speaking "to" someone is what differentiates experiential understanding.

Throughout the class we have kept this theme in relation to hikers and their relationships to both other hikers as well as "Trail Angels". We deemed that these relationships go against our societal instincts of "transactional equality". We are stuck in a mindset transactional friendship where one thing is given in exchange for something else. However, this is not true relational friendship. Genuine equality doesn't keep track of exchange. It is simply just friendship void of transactions and expectations. It is through things like "Trail Angels", "Trail Magic", and "Trail Grace" that restores faith in humanity. All of these things are rooted in an "I-Thou" mentality. We should look outward into the world and seeing Relationships, opposed to Things. 

Exegesis is letting the story manifest itself to you, without you projecting your own preconceptions or meaning onto it. Going on a journey is a way of exegeting and rewriting our life's story. This is a journey towards integrity and authenticity. You can't accurately exegete your life if you maintain a persona. Language conceals one's whole relationship with the world. This is because words carry weight and connotations. Words thematize by categorizing things into preconceptions that fit into a box we have created in order to make sense of it. Every time we describe something, we are thematizing. This leads into the idea of the "saying" versus the "said". When we project things onto others, what they might be saying, we receive as a "said" since we are preconceiving what we think they are saying, instead of unbiasedly letting them reveal themselves to us. We are inadvertently placing them into a box.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Collective Unconscious and the Importance of Ego (Serial Experiments: Lain) - Carter Jobe

I just finished watching the short series Serial Experiments: Lain and was inspired to write this blog about the many spiritual inuendos that touched me throughout this experience, along with elements I found relevant to this class. There is an underlying element of the Jungian collective unconscious throughout the show, and it is represented by the Wired, a mix between the internet, a higher reality like a heaven, and a connection between all people and the world around them. The antagonist, "God", aims to deplete everyone's ego and superego along with their bodies, diminishing everyone into a digitized version of the collective unconscious. Humanity would become one, and there would be no sin or differences. Certain characters throughout the show commit themselves to this idea and rid themselves of their burdens to become a part of the wired.  Lain herself is compelled to do the same at one point. In the climax of the show, Lain claims that we don't need our bodies,...
Read more

Kip Redick Example Post

  Page 4 Michael Taussig would suggest Juan's understanding of the meaning of a place emerges out of the process of an imitation of all the “differences” that we discern there. We mimic (in language and action) the full range of sounds, movements, and other sensory perceptions that come to us from the more than human world.” It’s hard to put a place that strikes us as sublime into mere words; we can try to describe it as a feeling and try to put language to that feeling, but sometimes the feeling of the beauty of nature or the power of a sacred space is too big to try to translate or make sense of. Would every place and experience be subjective, and would the discourse be the same? Would the mountain top make me feel the same as another? Or does my personal experience with the natural world and divine keep it intimate/ unique, or would my experience be relatable enough? The author uses the messiness, ambiguity, and mystery of people's deeply personal experienc...
Read more

Dante's Inferno, a pilgrimage through hell

 Dante Alighieri was a prolific author of the 13th century. He wrote many pieces, but one that he is most well known for is his book Inferno. This book follows Dante as he travels through the seven rings of hell, he is guided by his now dead mentor Virgil. This book was the first piece of media from this time period to really explore the idea of what hell would entail. Each ring is split into level of sin, it starts with purgatory, an eternal waiting room for people who are between heaven and hell. The first ring is the tamest, with the least appalling of the eternal punishments. The last ring is for only the most atrocious of sinners and hold the worst punishments.     Dante travels through hell as a living man, so he has no fear of being tortured  as he journeys deeper into the pit of mans greatest threats. Dante begins cautious but excited, he has been given an opportunity of a life time, to document such a prolific place that is so deeply rooted in the core of so...
Read more