I and Thou relationship in Martin Buber

Religious Philosophy

1. ‘I and thou’ relationship By Martin Buber (1923) a presentation by Lijo George

2. He Published this book ( Ich und Du) before WWII and it became one of the famous books of the 20th Century. Coincidentally, Buber's I and Thou (Ich und Du) was published in the same year as Sigmund Freud's The Ego and the Id (Das Ich und das Es lit. "The I and the It"). It could be described as 'religious philosophy’. Because it is not a closely-reasoned argument.

3. Theme of the book One of the major themes of the book is that human life finds its meaningfulness in relationships. In Buber's view, all of our relationships bring us ultimately into relationship with God, who is the Eternal Thou. What kind of relation? The whole goal is the concept of unity - within single person, between man and man, between segments of nations and among nations, between humankind and the inanimate world and unity between God and the universe.

4. Buber uses two pairs of words to describe two fundamentally different types of relationship ( Two primary human attitudes or relationships) : "I-Thou" 2. "I-It."

5. 1. I-It relationships : They treat others as objects. Self centered and driven by only one’s needs. 2. I-Thou relationships :( I-You) I-Thou is the primary world of true relation that a relation of person to person, subject to subject . Here we treat others as unique human beings, focus on appreciating others perspectives. It involves the attitude of accepting others otherness. He didn’t use ‘You’ because he wanted to stress the deep significance of another possible encounter – which is I-Thou. With the word ‘Thou’ he wished to denote presence, and directness.

6.   I-Thou  relationship: H uman beings are aware of each other as having a unity of being. In the  I-Thou  relationship, human beings do not perceive each other as consisting of specific, isolated qualities, but engage in a dialogue involving each other's whole being. (Included)   I-It  relationship : on the other hand, human beings perceive each other as consisting of specific, isolated qualities, and view themselves as part of a world which consists of things. (Excluded)  I-Thou  is a relationship of mutuality, while  I-It  is a relationship of separateness and detachment. Differences of two relationships

7. Differences of two relationships In the  I-Thou  relation, the  I  is unified with the  Thou , but in the  I-It  relation, the  I  is detached or separated from the  It . In the  I-Thou  relation, the being of the  I  belongs both to  I  and to  Thou . In the  I-It  relation, the being of the  I  belongs to  I , but not to  It .

8. Differences of two relationships Buber argues that, although the  I-Thou  relation is an ideal relation, the  I-It  relation is an inescapable relation by which the world is viewed as consisting of knowable objects or things. The  I-It  relation is the means by which the world is analyzed and described. However, the  I-It  relation may become an  I-Thou  relation , and in the  I-Thou  relation we can interact with the world in its whole being. E.g.: The life of St. Francis Assisi (Brother Sun and Sister Moon)

9. Buber explains that human beings may try to convert the subject-to-subject relation to a subject-to-object relation, or vice versa. However, the being of a subject is a unity which cannot be analyzed as an object. When a subject is analyzed as an object, the subject is no longer a subject, but becomes an object. When a subject is analyzed as an object, the subject is no longer a  Thou , but becomes an  It . The being which is analyzed as an object is the  It  in an  I-It  relation. Overview

10. Overview Love Buber uses the notion of love as a means of exposing relation. Love is something we live in rather than lives in us. And we are transformed by it. When we love someone we see that person as unique and without any qualities. The person is purely present, and not separated from us by anything. Love, as a relation between I and Thou, is a subject-to-subject relation. Buber claims that love is not a relation of subject-to-object. Love is an I-Thou relation in which subjects share this unity of being. Love is also a relation in which I and Thou share a sense of caring, respect, commitment, and responsibility.

11. “In each Thou we address the eternal Thou” According to Buber, God is the eternal  Thou . God is the  Thou  who sustains the  I-Thou  relation eternally. In the  I-Thou  relation between the individual and God, there is a unity of being in which the individual can always find God. However, the eternal  Thou  can be known as the absolute Person who gives unity to all being. If the individual has a real  I-Thou  relation with God, then the individual must have a real  I-Thou  relation with the world. If the individual has a real  I-Thou  relation with God, then the individual’s actions in the world must be guided by that  I-Thou  relation. Overview God

12. W hen we look into our present era, the crisis of modern world facing the threat of world wars, international disturbances, inter-personal hatreds of the individual from the other, world, and the creator and leading a meaningless life. This is caused because of not having proper dialogical relation and this is the reason why Buber’s I-Thou philosophy displays as the need and importance of the day the inter-human relations at personal, social, national and international levels. ( a human being is not fully human unless he also opens himself up to the mode of I–Thou) Need of I-thou relationship? Conclusion