I and Thou

How does Buber employ the concept of human love in his explanation of how human beings enter into relation with one another in the world of Thou? Why is human love significant?

Does Buber think that the explicit concept of God is necessary, or is the existence of the Eternal Thou enough? Do you agree with his position? Why or why not?

How does Buber think that human beings enter into relation with the rest of nature (including plants and animals), when relation requires the spiritual reality of language and speech? Do you agree with his assessment of the limitations of human-animal relation?

What is the difference between human beings as individuals and human beings as persons? Do you agree with Buber’s distinction?

In Part 3, Buber speaks about how religion and prayer straddle the lines between the world of It and the world of Thou. What is the wider significance of this? How do these ideas relate to the text’s key themes?

How do cultures contribute to the person’s tendency toward one of the two primary words (i.e., I—It and I—Thou), and are human beings necessarily caught up in their culture’s dominant worldview? If so, why? If not, how do they manage to escape?

Buber is a secular Jew writing in the mid-20th century—how do you think that Buber’s personal identity plays into his writing, especially in light of the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred when Buber’s career was on the rise?

In the 21st century, personal identity and individuality are of supreme cultural importance. Modern Western people tend to think of personhood and individuality as natural companions, but Buber tends to speak of the person and the individual as opposites. Does Buber’s distinction still work today? If not, why not? If so, how can Buber’s be understood in a contemporary context?