14. PHILOSOPHY
• Buber is famous for his thesis of dialogical existence, as he
described in the book I and Thou. However, his work dealt with a
range of issues including religious consciousness, modernity, the
concept of evil, ethics, education, and Biblical hermeneutics.
• Buber rejected the label of "philosopher" or "theologian" claiming
he was not interested in ideas, only personal experience, and
could not discuss God but only relationships to God.
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15. MARTIN BUBER ON EDUCATION
• Buber’s focus on dialogue and community would alone mark him
out as an important thinker for educators. But when this is added
to his fundamental concern with encounter and how we are with
each other (and the world) his contribution is unique and yet often
unrecognized.
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16. DIALOGUE
• Dialogue (1923- 1938) – that reflects Buber’s move away from the
supremacy of the ecstatic moment to the unity of being and a
focus on relationship and the dialogical nature of existence
(perhaps most strongly linked to his book I and Thou).
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22. DIALOGUE AND EXISTENCE
• In I and Thou, Buber introduced his thesis on human existence. Inspired by
Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity and Kierkegaard's Single One, Buber
worked upon the premise of existence as encounter.
• He explained this philosophy using the word pairs of Ich-Du and Ich-Es to
categorize the modes of consciousness, interaction, and being through which an
individual engages with other individuals, inanimate objects, and all reality in
general.
• Theologically, he associated the first with the Jewish Jesus and the second with
the gentile Christian Paul.
• Philosophically, these word pairs express complex ideas about modes of being
particularly how a person exists and actualizes that existence.
• As Buber argues in I and Thou, a person is at all times engaged with the world in
one of these modes.
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23. • The generic motif Buber employs to describe the dual modes of
being is one of dialogue (Ich-Du) and monologue (Ich-Es). The
concept of communication, particularly language-oriented
communication, is used both in describing dialogue/monologue
through metaphors and expressing the interpersonal nature of
human existence.
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