Work · Life & Existential Philosophy
I and Thou
Two basic words, I–Thou and I–It: we meet the other as a whole or use it as an object – and only in meeting do we become persons.
Introduction
Martin Buber, known by then for his retellings of Hasidic tales, published Ich und Du in 1923. The short, aphoristic book has three parts. The first introduces the two basic words: in I–It we experience and use things, and the other becomes an object among objects; in I–Thou we encounter a being and address it as a whole – a person, but also a tree or a work of art. The second part applies the distinction to history and society, which cannot do without the world of It. The third speaks of the “eternal Thou”, God, who is met in every true encounter and can never become an It. The book influenced Jewish and Christian theology, education and psychotherapy.
Connections
Taken up in
- Letter from Birmingham Jail1963 · Martin Luther King Jr.
More works by Martin Buber
- 1946Paths in Utopia
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made