Martin Buber

(February 8, 1878 June 13, 1965)

Was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish existentialist

philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a
form of existentialism centered on the distinction
between the IThou relationship and the IIt
relationship.

Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of observant

Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular
studies in philosophy.

In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay on

existence, Ich and Du (later translated into English as I
and Thou), and in 1925, he began translating
the Hebrew Bible into the German language. He
conceives the human person in his/her wholeness,
totality, concrete existence and relatedness to the world.

Saint Pope John Paul II or Karol Wojtyla was born in

Wadowice, Poland. He was elected to the Papacy on
October 16, 1978 (264th Pope) and was considered a great
pope during his lifetime. He was also an architect of
Communisms demise in Poland. In his encyclical letter,
Fides et ratio, he criticized the traditional definition of
human as rational animal. He maintains that the human
person is the one who exists the acts (conscious acting has a
will, has self-determination).
 Martin Bubers and Karol Wojtylas views will be used as the main framework in
understanding intersubjectivity. Both philosophers were influenced by their religious
background. They believed in the notion of concrete experience. Both refused to regard the
human person as a composite of some kind of dimensions, such as animality and rationality.

For both views, the human person is total, not dual. For the Wojtyla, the social
dimension is represented by We relation and for Buber, the interpersonal is signified by the
I-You relation.

For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the human agent. Participation explains the
essence of the human person. Through participation, the person is able to fulfill ones self. The
human person is oriented toward relation and sharing in the communal life for the common
good.

As St. Augustine of Hippo said, No human being should become an end to him/herself.
We are responsible to our neighbors as we are to our own actions.

We participate in the communal life (We). Our notion of the neighbor and fellow
member is by participating in the humanness of the other person (I-You). The neighbor takes
into account humanness.

Bubers I-Thou philosophy is about the human person as subject, who is being
different from things or from objects. The human person experiences his wholeness not in
virtue of his relation to ones self, but in virtue of his relation to another self. The human
person establishes the world of mutual relation, of experience.

The human persons as subjects have direct and mutual sharing of selves. This signifies a
person-to-person, subject-to-subject relation or acceptance, sincerity, concern, respect,
dialog and care. The human person is not just being-in-the-world but being-with-others, or
being-in-relation.

In contrast, to realm of meeting and dialog, Buber cites the I-It relation. This I-It
relationship is a person to thing, subject to object that is merely experiencing and using;
lacking directedness and mutuality (feeling, knowing, and acting).