summary of martin buber's i and thou

SUMMARY OF I AND THOU

INTRODUCTION

Martin Buber’s I and Thou (Ich und Du, 1923) present a philosophy of personal dialogue, in that it describes how personal dialogue can define the nature of reality. Buber’s major theme is that human existence may be defined by the way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with God.

This work of Martin Buber in its original German form, since its publication has been influential to the society. I and Thou represent the intensity of Buber’s religious interest. This work is mystical, belonging to higher mysticism of real communion with god. This work has a direct appeal to people with religious interest. It has made a great impact on the modern world. In this work, Buber shows basically the radical difference between a man’s attitude to other men and his attitude to things. Man’s attitude to fellow men is a relationship between persons, while his attitude with things is a connection with objects.

In the personal relationship, the subject “I” confronts the “Thou”, while in connection with things, the subject “I” contemplates and experiences an object. These attitudes represent the basic situations of the human life. “I –Thou” is a relationship between a subject and a subject, while “I –It” is a relationship between subject and object. Human beings are aware of each other as having a unity of being in the “I-Thou” relationship. They engage in dialogue involving each other’s whole. In the “I –It” relationship, human being perceive themselves as part of the world that consist of things. “I-Thou” is a relationship of mutuality and reciprocity, while “I-It” is a relationship of separateness and detachment.

This work is ultimately a theological doctrine of the full, direct, mutual relation between beings, as conceived by Martin Buber and some other 20th-century philosophers. The basic and purest form of this relation is that between man and God (the Eternal Thou), which is the model for and makes possible I-Thou relations between human beings. The relation between man and God, however, is always an I-Thou one, whereas that between man and man is very frequently an I-It one, in which the other being is treated as an object of thought or action. According to Buber, man's relation to other creatures may sometimes approach or even enter the I-Thou realm. This Buber's book Ich und Du (1923; I and Thou) is the classic work on the subject.

SUMMARY OF I AND THOU

This book is divided into three sections, but are all related to each other. The first part of the book examines the human conditions by exploring each individual man. The second part examines the human life on the societal level; it investigates the society and man as he lives in the society. The modern society leaves man unfulfilled and alienated. The third part deals with the subject of religion.

The fundamentality of this work in its entirety is the distinction drawn in the first section between the two modes of engagement with the world. The first section which was referred to as experience by Buber (the mode of I and It) is familiar, this mode is used by modern man exclusively. In every day experience, man collects data, analyzes it, classifies it, and theorizes about it. The “It”, being an object of experience is to be utilized and put into purpose. Our objects of experience are seen as a collection of qualities and quantities, and as a particular point in space and time.

There is a necessary distance and difference between the experiencing “I” and the experience “It”, one is subject and the other is object. The experiencing “I” is more an objective observer, than an active participant in the mode of engaging the world. To be truly human, we must encounter (the mode of I – You). In this case, we enter a relationship with the object encountered, we participate with the objects and both the “I” and the “You” are transformed by the relationship between them. The “You” is encountered in the entirety of its qualities. It is not encountered just as a point in space and time, but as an entire universe somehow existing through the “You”. We can encounter any object of our experience, objects, animals and man. The phenomena of the encounter with man are best described as Love. However we can encounter God as a being that is not an object. This encounter is the subject addressed in the third section of the book.

In the part two, Buber takes the conclusion that he made about man’s fundamental psychology, the identification of man’s two means of engaging the world and puts it conclusively to work in sociological reasoning. He looked at the modern society and its bases; man’s political, economic and personal life are fundamentally rooted in the fact that he views every other being as an “It” rather than “You”.

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CONCLUSION

The first two sections of this book (I and Thou) holds that man has two ways of engaging the world. The modern society leaves man alienated by valuing only the first of the two ways in which man engages the world. However, we are giving a clue of how to go about building a fulfilling and meaningful society. This is simply for us to regenerate and make proper use of the neglected second mode of engaging the world and by equally using the same mode to relate to God.

If man is able to see any other being as a “You”, man would no longer be alienated; he will be fulfilled and complete. He will help to build an ideal society, consisting of people who have gone through absolute relationship. In the third section, Buber gives his solution to modern man’s woes. It involves opening up to encounter and build a society based on a relationship with “You” rather than it, Love is a constant oscillation between encounter and experience, but it does completely fulfill our yearning for relationship