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):
1. "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:
Human 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
be guided by that I-Thou relation.
Overview
God

12. When 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