The Jewish Philosopher Martin Buber

Shalom. This video is about Martin Buber’s General Philosophy, I have a separate video in his Educational Philosophy. One of the most important and interesting philosophers in modern Jewish times, he was the product really of two intercepting cultures, German culture and the Jewish culture. But, more than that, there are many important things happening around the time when he was alive that heavily influenced him. He had the Haskalah, the enlightenment. He had the emergence of Hasidut. And, I have a separate video on Hasidut. I urge you to watched, and kind of understand the intellectual performance that effected Buber. He had the melancholy of the two world wars. He had the Messianic hopes that rose with the establishment of the State of Israel, and knew he had German Philosophy. So, they are all affecting one another to impact on Buber’s unique theological philosophy. He was born on 1878, and at the age of three, he went to live with his grandfather. Simon Buber, was a noted scholar of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment. Now, it is very important to understand how Hasidut influence them because of his major works at the end of his life with the test of the Hasidut by Buber, fascinating work. So watch my video on Hasidut if you like. But, in terms of the importance on him, what happened was, the Jews were expecting the messiah, instead they saw pograms and casaks and persecutions, and it was the movement that advocated complete confidence in God and realization of God’s presence everywhere. So, if God is everywhere, the façade of reason, why be afraid. Consequently, a person should always be joyous, that was their response to all of these war they were experiencing. And, they are much like the Christian evangelical sects today; they emphasize new birth, animation song, inner emotionalism, a religion of emotions and feelings and innovated religion that spoke to the heart, spiritual healings through prayer and divine thoughts. So, that was one thing that heavily influenced them. Then, you have the Haskalah. The movement of scholarship, modernism and enlightenment, with that, return the Jew to the sense of self-esteem, dignity and freedom. And so, how did this influenced him? Well, the Masquelim, the Enlightened Haskalah Scholars. In fact, I vigorously, embarked in the path of humanism, scholarship and emancipation. But they steadfast the halowed to Jewish tenants and principles. At the age 14, Buber left his grandfather’s house to study in the gymnasium in Lombergian, in which it is Berlin. And he became soon disenchanted with the conventional European Philosophies. Now, one thing that excited him was Extentialism, a scroll of Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian, which stresses the significance of personal existence. From Kierkegaard, Buber learned that every person must seek his own pathway to God. And at building faith in God and he restore the ground as fatal delusion. It is essential for philosophers to maintain the, you do not have to go far to search for solutions to problems such as human suffering. The solution lies on the human beings. Truth can be found within a person and his soul. So from all of these, Buber established one of the most important phrases in modern philosophy, I think, which is called the I thou. Basically, the whole goal is the concept of unity. Our greatest achievement in life, Buber said, is the attainment of unity, unity within a single person, between man and man, between segments of nations, among nations, between humankind and the inanimate world, the unity between God and the universe. But, the world is bipolar. Every subject according to Buber is in relationship to another subject. And, you have two choices, you can either relate to that thing, he said, as an it. And, people related people as it, like a table or chair, or a person who walk in by, you have no connection. He did not use the word “you” because he wanted to stress the deep significance of even a possible other encounter which is Thou. By using the word thou, he wish to connote presentness, mutuality, directness, familiar area and enough ability. So, question is, in your relationships, do we have an I it or an I thou? Cause I-Thou was a dialogue, I it is man or. I it is one sided. And, it gives many examples of heading, go to a doctor and the doctor can treat you like an it or a thou. You can deal with a store clerk as an it an or a thou? You can deal with nature as an it or a thou? He talked about the experience of being in a grandfather’s state and feeding a horse and suddenly, he gave the horse something, the horse kind of winnowed and raised a thud, and he realized that the horse was expressing approval in the it and I Thou relationship. Now, in terms of God, of course, God was the key for humans imminence I thou relationship because God is the Eternal thou. And his description of the relation between man and God is the I-thou relation to God, the Eternal. For Buber, revelation is not only something that happens many years ago at Synagogue. It is something that happens in the present to a persons personal life. The Bible for him was not simply a record of the biologically encounters between man and God, he says the laws of the Bible are only the human response to revelation, they are therefore, he thought not binding in later generations, obviously very controversial idea in Judaism. The dialogue between God and the Israelites is a penalized in the covenant, which lies the basic of Jewish Messianism. God will research, demands these Israelites to become a holy people, thereby making the real sovereignty of God and every aspect of Communal life. For him, the essence of religious life is not ones affirmation of religious belief, but the way in which one meets the challenges of everyday life, and I think that is perfectly consistent with Jewish tradition. He asserted that the failure to enter into a genuine dialogue, I-thou constitutes evil, and a relation that is exclusively I-it is evil. So, there are basically two stages of evil, the first one, a person remains passive, allowing things that happen rather than using their freedom of choice to act. The second stage is the actual decision to do evil. The later one confronted with the holocaust, he developed a new concept called Radical evil that the surds that there are extraordinary times when God withdraws his presence form humanity. So, that is basically the summation of Buber’s principles. He introduced the new way of thinking about relating to others as I-thou Philosophy. Has had a strong influence on modern Jewish educators, and definitely, something to ponder. To spend our life in our days and our minutes, thinking about how we can have I-thou relationship instead of I-it relationships. Thank you, Martin Buber.