I and Thou is a philosophy of human relations with the world, including nature, other humans, and the spiritual realm. A short but incisive and generative book, it is composed of three chapters, originally published in 1923, and an afterword, added with the second edition in 1957.
In the first Chapter, Buber explains his fundamental distinction between I-It and I-You. For Buber, the mode of existence of the human subject, or I, is always determined by the relation between I and the world. In the I-It, the world is approached as an object for the subject to use and experience. In the I-You, the world and the subject are instead in a relation together, both subjects of a larger process. To relate to something as a "You" is to be more present and immersed in the wholeness of the world, rather than breaking it down into qualities, attributes, or parts. Buber thinks our relation with the world begins as I-You, just as a fetus is immersed in the womb of its mother, but as individuals age and as civilizations progress, the I-It starts to dominate. This is how people begin to manipulate and design their world to meet their needs, treating the world more as an objective tool than a partner.
In Chapter 2, Buber explains the consequences of this dominance of the It. While necessary for human survival, it has also led to the spiritual stagnation of mankind. This means people are not fulfilled because they do not have relations with the world or even with each other. Instead, the world becomes alienating and isolating. It is necessary to develop the spiritual side of life again, and this requires not letting the It dominate over the You. Buber clarifies that this is not a matter of abandoning some part of the world for another part of the world, like leaving behind worldly possessions in order to attend to more spiritual matters. The It and the You do not refer to different parts of the world, but different approaches to the world in its entirety. We need to develop the approach of the You, which is about entering into relations with the world rather than objectifying and using it and each other.
The essentially religious nature of this task is explored in Chapter 3, where Buber also distinguishes his philosophy from other religious teachings, including those from Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions. Buber begins by explaining that every You—every object perceived relationally—intersects in the “eternal You.” This is like the master You or the You that contains all the others. In this way, the eternal You is often Buber’s name for God. But it differs from the ways others have considered God because relationality means reciprocity, which in turn means humans and God participate actively together. This is different from a passive relation to God in which someone prays, “Thy Will Be Done.”
In the Afterword, Buber clarifies some points from the first edition of the book. The most important has to do with which relations get us closer to God or the eternal You. Buber says that we can develop relations in any of the three realms: nature, humans, and spirits. But it is with humans that we are closest to a relation with the eternal You, because human relations are more obviously reciprocal. That’s because the medium of human relations is language, and in language, we have the reciprocity of call and response: I speak, you respond, and I respond to what you speak. This is different from a relation with a tree, for instance, which cannot respond in the same way. Thus, relations with men model relations with God, because of their pure reciprocity and mutuality.
