Customer Reviews

I and Thou (Scribner Classic)

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Unlike the usual philosophical endeavor, this book does not build an argument or make a case about a particular interpretation of the world or some aspect of it. Rather, Buber's seminal work begins with a key insight into our way of being in the world and goes on to weave an intricate web of variations on this theme, creating, if you let it, a sense of his core insight in the reader's own mind. Reading this book is not about reading a philosophical argument or thesis but rather about giving oneself up to the man and his insight: that there are two fundamental ways for us to be in the world, as subjects relating to objects (in order to use them for ourselves) or as subjects relating to subjects (which recognize ourselves in that which meets us at the other end of the "relation"). For Buber this is what it is all about. And, he tells us, we cannot choose one or the other but must (and do) have both though it is easy for us to lose sight of the subjectness of others when we embrace their objectness. And so he bangs away at the need to see the subjectness, not only in other persons but in other aspects of the world as well, and, indeed, in the world itself, holding that to "see" the subjectness that is there, in the world as a whole (through relating in this manner to its parts), is to see God. And this is where it gets somewhat abstruse for he offers no proof of God in the ordinary sense but rather the assertion alone that we must have access to the subjective aspect of being in order to fully live our lives and that this assumes God. He has no proofs to offer but only an ongoing spiraling prose poem that builds the sense of the world as he has seen it, a realm of subject to subject that overarches and informs the more mundane reality of subject to object in which we are generally mired. If you are looking for a philosophical work that builds an argument with proofs and rational discourse, this is not the book for you. But if you are willing to immerse yourself in his sometimes ecstatic prose, then this offers an experience worth having. Not all philosophy is about building logical edifices or exposing one's thinking to rigorous analytical critiques. Sometimes it's just about insight and seeing the world in a new way. And that is what Buber gave us with this book. -- SWM

This small book is obscure at times and difficult to grasp, yet it completely changed my life. I honestly think Buber wrote it poetically to encourage the reader to slow down and potentially I have a true encounter with the ideas. Most of Buber's later books seem to be developing the ideas expounded in I and Thou, so it might be helpful to read another Buber text, like Between Man and Man, alongside I and Thou. He becomes his own commentary. If you have the patience, I think you'll find this book opens a whole new perspective on relationships, our perspective on the world, and the potential for truly divine encounters.

Martin Buber has achieved something amazing in this slim book. All you really need to read is Part One of I and Thou (more appropriately translated as 'I and You' in my opinion) to understand his very practical philosophy. There is more profundity in those 30 pages than in all the religious / "metaphysical studies" / spirituality aisle books you'll ever see.

For some reason, Buber is always shelved under Judaica, when Philosophy seems like a better place for him, but anyway don't be scared off by the religious categorization. This book is as secular as they come, and therefore safe for the avowed atheists out there.

Anyway, after reading enormous doses of literature, and a pretty good smattering of Western philosophy, this was the first book to have simple, applicable advice; it is at one and the same time a metaphysical system and a doctrine of how to live the good life. As far as I know, these two branches of philosophy usually seem pretty far apart, except in religion, in which case you are forced to accept absurdities as the price of this marriage.

Buber is neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He's an existentialist but I find him more 'useful' than other Ex's because his theory is not just a laying bare of hypocrisy -- Buber actually gives you a way of taking positive action to enrich your life.

Lest you misunderstand this convoluted review, there is nothing Anthony Robbins-ish about Buber. He's not a rah-rah go team life coach lightweight.

Just read it.

Before I read "I and Thou" I was one person. After I read it, I was another.
I can't think of any other book that has changed my life in so drastic a way.
One actually only need read the first chapter to have their lives irrevocably altered, but I would suggest reading the entire work.
That will fill out the picture in greater detail.

Read this one slowly. Let every word and phrase enter you and transform you.
It is for you (or thou) that this book was written. And reading it, you will gain a you. Because you will learn how to say "you" (as in 'I love you') and actually mean "you".
Too often, Buber teaches, when we say "you", we really mean "he" or "she", which is really no more than an "it".
This "it-world" diminishes all involved. By shifting from an experiencing I-It world to a relating I-You world. . .we open the opportunity for a relationship beyond time and space.
What some people call Love.
Read it and learn to love. It's that simple.

Dave Beckwith
Charlotte Internet Society

In 1988 my life was completely transformed by this tiny book, and those effects continue today. Buber's powerful stance on human (and divine) relations is even more relevant and poignant today as we spend more and more time in enclosed rooms trying to communicate with strangers through machines. Buber understood human isolation so well and so eloquently mourned its harmful effects, proposing a far better way to live and relate to others.

I hope that readers will take the time to digest what Buber has to say. As for which transation to read, I began with the Kaufmann, but soon found the older one by Ronald Gregor Smith to be more direct, less wordy, and much more beautifullly written. However, regardless of which translation you read, this book is truly a gem.

Buber's basic distinction is between the I- It, and the I- Thou relationship. In the I-It relationship we treat others as objects and make use of them for our own selfish purposes. In the I - Thou relationship we treat others with full respect, and seek to understand their inwardness as we understand our own. In the I- Thou relationship as Buber conceives it true dialogue and true relationship is possible. And in this kind of meaningful relationship between two understanding and empathetic human beings we come into a kind of holy relationship. And this kind of holy human relationship parallels the proper relationship we are to have with God.
While this single idea might seem too all encompassing to really analyze the complexity of our human relationships, I believe it is a basically right guiding concept.
Buber in this short work sets out his theoretical understanding of the concept. Buber is ordinarily a clear writer, and a remarkable storyteller as in his 'Tales of the Hasidism' work. But here the theoretical structure means that there is much abstraction often difficult to understand. Philosophy meets poetry here but not always in a readily comprehensible way.
But again this is the key concept of a major thinker, and a concept which illuminate the path for each of us to a better and more humanly fulfilling life.

This book was truly amazing and I continual refer to it with my relationships with other people. And that is the central commandment - to realize that we have relationships with people, trees, dogs, and god (an I-You relationship). We do not experience the abovementioned as objects (an I-It relationship) but they have life that reciprocates our actions. Buber explains our relationships and how we should go about interpreting them. For example, animals and plants are a relationship beneath language, people our related to within language, and finally the eternal you (god) is above our function of language.

"Feeling dwell in man, but man dwells in his love. This is no metaphor but actuality: love does not cling to an I, as if the You were merely its "content" or object; it is between I and You. Whoever does not know this...does not know love..."

The only way one can find themselves is to experience the relationship. I highly recommend this book, but I do suggest a dictionary nearby because the wording can get rather tricky. Admittedly it is a difficult read, but taking your time with each paragraph and rereading when necessary, I am confident that if you truly want to find out more about a simple but thought provoking philosophy you will find yourself done with the book in a matter of weeks.

This is the wisest book written in the last hundred years. If religion is to survive in the next millenium, it will be because of books like I and Thou. While the Kaufmann translation is difficult (I prefer Gregor Smith's version) I can't imagine a better way to spend one's time than lovingly reading I and Thou.

I find the notes of Walter Kaufmann very valuable and gives another way of understanding the Old Testament. If you get an edition of I AND THOU, I highly recommend getting one translated with notes by Walter Kaufmann. The main theme of Buber in this book is that there are two basic relationships with life I-Thou and I-It. When we meet life in I-Thou we enter the sacred and are truly authentic to each other. From this basic relationship comes a kind of Monotheism as well as the ethics of personal conscience and integrity and meeting another person in their fullness, rather than reducing them or life to a thing which can be manipulated or analyzed or even objectively known. I feel that Buber opened the heart and core of the Old Testament to me, beyond what my previously more Christian studies implied was there (making any message there inferior to what the New Testament gives). Before then all I could get was outmoded laws, grisly wars, strange folklore, and proverbial common sense with an occasionally wise statement which was a nugget of gold in the strange medley of books. But once I got what this kind of authentic relating was about, something seemed to unify for me about the Old Testament and the rest made sense. I still find a lot of what I used to find there, but with the key Buber gave, I could see something growing at the very heart of Judaism behind all those books about what it meant to meet each other authentically and to feel I divinity that says I AM.

The image of the self is incomplete without the image of the other. There are very few books that resonate so meaningfully or reflect the human condition as accurately as does I and Thou. Buber presses upon his reader the importance of engaging all of one's self in experience in order to be fully attuned to one's environment and the entities present in it, not to view the other as separate from the self but as vital and purposeful in its own self.