I and Thou / Martin Buber - Summary
I and Thou (in German: Ich und Du ) is an influential philosophical essay by Martin Buber published in 1923. The essay presents a dialogical philosophy, a philosophical-social conception that deals with dialogical relationships between human beings, based on honest and direct relationships of affinity as the source of the self.
Joining Jewish influences and an ideological tradition that developed in Europe in the mid -20th century, Buber attaches crucial ontological importance to interpersonal engagement and speech. He made the claim that the existence of man as a subject is created and shaped within the dialogue he exchanges with others. It is the discourse with another that constitutes man as a spiritual personality. It is not the individual person who is a fundamental fact of human existence, but the person who is in affinity with others. The main thing is therefore not the physical existence but the crystallization of the individual consciousness through contact and dialogue with someone else.
Buber's I-thou and I-it
According to Buber, the "I-thou" relationship is found in addressing the other (not only in verbal speech, but first and foremost in mental intention). Buber contrasts the I-thou relatinship with "i-it" which is basically denying the subjectivity of the other in favor of vieing him as an object, an "it". Viewing the othet as a useful means and not as an end is to establish a realtion of alienation. This means that for Buber not seeing the other as a self much like my self means to lose my own selfhood.
In the I-thou relation Buber sees a revelation of the divine essences inherent in everything, and in fact sees in God the "eternal you."cThe pinnacle of "dialogue" according to Buber is in the ability to meet through any true affinity with the eternal thou. That is, a person accustomed to meeting others in "I am you" will learn that in fact the "eternal you" - God - speaks to him through every concrete "you" with whom he has created an affinity. Life is full of "signs" from the "eternal you" that speaks to you constantly. The person only has to tilt the ear. Buber's novelty is that no man can come to God except through men (in stark oposotion to Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard).