Martin Buber's classic I and Thou describes a doubleness in human life that is captured by two “primary words,” I-It and I-Thou. The contrast is not merely between two modes of human contact with the world. The I itself is different, depending on whether I is connected to an It or a Thou.
When engaged with things, the I is one pole of an I-It duality. Encountering an It, I stand at a distance to analyze and dissect, classify and count, and formulate laws. The I that faces It is a partial I, a subject over against objects, an individual that is not yet a full person.
The world of I-Thou, by contrast, is a world of relation, in which the Ibecomes fully personal. I-Thou is perfected in a relation unmediated by ideas or aims, foreknowledge or fancy. In this world, “every means is an obstacle. Only when every means has collapsed does the meeting come about.” I-Thou is a relation of sheer presence and presentness.
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