Martin Buber's 1923 essay, central to 20th-century Jewish philosophy and to the wider phenomenological tradition, distinguishing two basic stances — the 'I-It' of objectifying knowledge and the 'I-Thou' of unmediated meeting. The book argues that authentic existence consists of I-Thou encounters, that God is the eternal Thou, and that modern instrumental rationality has flattened almost all encounter into I-It.
Walter Kaufmann's 1970 retranslation reopened the English reception and is now the standard text. Karl Barth's early reading was a bridge into Christian theology; Carl Rogers's reading was a bridge into psychotherapy; Levinas's later work is in part an extension and in part a critique. The structure is three sections of aphorisms moving from the psychology of the individual to society to religion — the I-Thou and I-It word pairs introduced in the opening, the eternal Thou as the horizon of the third part.
First lines
The world is twofold for man in accordance with his twofold attitude. The attitude of man is twofold in accordance with the two basic words he can speak. The basic words are not single words but word pairs. One basic word is the word pair I-You. The other basic word is the word pair I-It; but this basic word is not changed when He or She takes the place of It.
Contents
Part One — The Word-Pairs and the World Twofold
Part Two — Society and the I-It
Part Three — The Eternal Thou
Reception
One of the most-cited works in 20th-century philosophy of religion, a foundational text of dialogical philosophy, and unavoidable in any serious account of modern Jewish thought. Walter Kaufmann's 1970 retranslation reopened the English reception; Levinas's later work is in part an extension and in part a critique. Inside academic philosophy the book's status has held steady for a century; outside it, the I-Thou distinction has entered general vocabulary the way few twentieth-century philosophical concepts have. Karl Barth's reading was an early bridge into Christian theology; Carl Rogers's reading was an early bridge into psychotherapy.
Frequently asked
What is I and Thou about?
Buber distinguishes two basic stances toward the world: the 'I-It' of objectifying knowledge and the 'I-Thou' of unmediated meeting. The book argues that authentic existence consists of I-Thou encounters, that God is the eternal Thou, and that modern instrumental rationality has flattened almost all encounter into I-It.
Which English translation should I read?
Two exist. Ronald Gregor Smith's 1937 translation introduced the book to English readers and gave it its title. Walter Kaufmann's 1970 retranslation (Scribner) is now the scholarly standard — it translates Du as 'You' rather than 'Thou' inside the text, on the grounds that 'Thou' has religious connotations that Buber's German does not carry, and adds a substantial prologue and footnotes.
Why is it considered foundational to dialogical philosophy?
It is the first sustained philosophical work to take the encounter between persons — rather than the cognising subject — as the primary scene of meaning. Emmanuel Levinas's later ethics is in part an extension and in part a critique of Buber's framing; Karl Barth's theology and Carl Rogers's psychotherapy both drew from it directly.