First heard about in Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening
Theory by Martin Buber from his 1923 book of the same title, proposing that existence is defined in two ways:
- I in relation to it, an object separate from ourselves
- Experience, sensation
- I in relation to thou, a relationship without separation No Boundary
- abandonment of sensation, interconnectedness
- does not have to be with human - can be with object too
- another is not experienced, they are related to
- spoken with the whole being
- step outside self, empathy
A corollary is that meaning is found in relationships (delving into spirituality, relationship with God)
Quotes
Primary words do not signify things, but they intimate relations.
Primary words do not describe something that might exist independently of them, but being spoken they bring about existence.
Every It is bounded by others; It exists only through being bounded by others. But when Thou is spoken, there is no thing. Thou has no bounds.
No aim, no lust, and no anticipation intervene between I and Thou. Desire itself is transformed as it plunges out of its dream into the appearance. Every means is an obstacle. Only when every means has collapsed does the meeting come about.