IB Philosophy 1.2.3 Relations to Others Key Definitions

I-Thou Relation: in Martin Buber's philosophy, the mode of relating in which another person is encountered as a full, irreducible subject rather than an object, in contrast to the I-It relation where the other is reduced to a category or tool.

Junzi: the Confucian ideal of the morally exemplary person who embodies virtue through disciplined self-cultivation, defined not by birth or rank but by fully realising the virtues appropriate to each of their relational roles.

Li: in Confucian philosophy, the system of ritual propriety and social norms that govern conduct within the five cardinal relationships, providing the social grammar through which ren is expressed and sustained.

Personhood is the status of being a person, typically defined by possessing certain capacities such as self-consciousness, rationality, moral agency, or social recognition, though the criteria vary across philosophical traditions.

Relational Self: the philosophical view that personal identity is not a pre-given substance but is constituted through relations to others from the outset, so that selfhood and otherness are co-constitutive rather than prior and independent categories.

Ren is the central Confucian virtue, variously translated as benevolence, humaneness, or goodness, representing the highest moral quality attainable through sustained self-cultivation. It is expressed as genuine concern for the wellbeing of others within concrete relationships rather than abstract universal love.