I and Thou

Human beings crave relationship and interpersonal communication. To be human is to move from the desire to know things as objects to know people as subjects. Buber would never deny that human love and desire for knowledge is a very good thing, but he points out that this is not our primary goal and ultimate end. The ultimate end of the human being is, rather, to enter into relation with another Thou, set in relation to the I: “I do not experience the man to whom I say Thou. But I take my stand in relation to him, in the sanctity of the primary word” (15, emphasis added). This primary word is the word of I—Thou, and human experience of relation and interpersonal communion is wholly distinct from the experience of things in the world as objects.

In fact, it is only in relation that personal identity becomes real as well. The two realities of I and Thou are realities only when seen in relation to one another. In the same way that a father is only a father in light of the existence of a son or daughter, the I is only an I in light of the existence of another Thou (be it human or divine). The recognition of Thou is what actually creates the I, bringing it into existence as something that transcends one’s existence as a mere individual object in a world of countless other objects.

The challenge of human existence is to continually struggle against the overwhelming force of the world of It in contrast to the world of Thou. Buber puts this in the language of fate: “Every Thou in the world is by its nature fated to become a thing, or continually to re-enter into the condition of things” (21). Putting the nature of the problem this way, Buber highlights the human tendency to drag relations and personal subjects back into the realm of knowledge and experience. By doing this, we are able to put the world in a box, making it easily understood, categorized, and manipulated. Human beings naturally have this tendency on account of their desire to constantly understand the world and have power over it; but the building of the personal I needs to struggle against this tendency in order to allow the subjective to have priority over the objective.

Finally, since the Eternal Thou functions as the ultimate end and source of all existence, all cultivation of human relationship finds its ultimate fulfillment in the fabric of reality as it exists. Viewing the world of It, human beings fall away into non-existence, but recognition of the one, true reality of Thou allows the person to move toward true existence under the sway of the Eternal Thou.