Me and you (Buber)

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Me and You is one of the best-known and most important writings of the religious philosopher Martin Buber (1878–1965); it was published in 1923.

Essential thoughts

Buber's philosophical approach feeds on Jewish-mystical ( Hasidism ) and Christian-mystical ( Meister Eckhart ) theology, as well as existential philosophical approaches (especially Sören Kierkegaard ). In Me and You he emphasizes the dialogical principle:

“The world is twofold to man according to his twofold attitude. The attitude of the person is twofold according to the twofold of the basic words that he can speak. The basic words are not single words, but word pairs. One basic word is the word pair I-You. The other basic word is the word pair I-It; (...) Thus the human ego is also twofold. Because the I of the basic word I-You is different from that of the basic word I-It ”.

In this way, humans form their identity primarily in relation to what surrounds them: first the encounter with a human counterpart, the "you" (I-you relationship), or with the material world, the "it" (I-it relationship ), enables a demarcation of the "I" from its environment.

“There is no I in itself, but only the I of the basic word I-You and the I of the basic word I-It. When a person speaks I, he means one of the two. (...) Being me and speaking are one. "

However, the I-Thou relationship is different from the I-It relationship in that only this relationship allows a real encounter, a true "conversation". However, the focal point of Buber's approach to philosophy of religion is the ability of humans to relate to the "eternal you" of God:

"The extended lines of relationships intersect in the eternal you".

However, a naive, anthropomorphic image of God is not to be assumed here. Rather, the “eternal you” is to be seen as a necessary vanishing point of human relationality, as a kind of culmination of all human relationality . From this perception, the divine - besides innumerable other attributes - also appropriates the attribute of language ability, so that the human being can definitely enter into “a conversation with God”. An indication of this can be the encounter with a "human you":

“Each individual you is a glimpse into him (sc. To the eternal you). Through each individual you the basic word addresses the eternal ”.

With regard to his understanding of God and religion, Buber's approach is based on an inclusive pluralism, because the many names of God thought up by people are all just an expression of the one underlying "eternal you":

“Your eternal you have addressed people by many names. (...) But all God's names remain sacred ”.

expenditure

literature

  • Peter Ehlen , Gerd Haeffner , Friedo Ricken : Philosophy of the 20th Century. 3rd edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2010, pp. 59-64.
  • Peter Stöger: Martin Buber (1923), Me and You. In: Michael Kühnlein (Ed.), Philosophy of Religion and Criticism of Religion. A manual. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-518-29740-7 , pp. 525-532.
  • Bernhard Lang: Martin Buber, me and you. In: Bernhard Lang: Religion and Literature in Three Millennia. A hundred books. Schöningh, Paderborn 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-79227-3 , pp. 598-603.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Joachim Störig : Martin Buber. In: Hans Joachim Störig: Small world history of philosophy. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1996, pp. 609–612.
  2. ↑ Martin Buber: Me and you. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, p. 3.
  3. ↑ Martin Buber: Me and you. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, p. 4.
  4. ↑ Hans Joachim Störig: Small world history of philosophy. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1996, p. 611.
  5. ↑ a b c Martin Buber: Me and you. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, p. 71.