Martin Buber 1878 – 1965
Martin Buber was a 20th-century Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and one of the most influential figures of modern Jewish religious thought. His 1923 book Ich und Du, translated as I and Thou, distinguished two fundamental modes of human relation: the I-It relation in which the other is treated as an object, and the I-Thou relation in which the other is encountered as a subject in mutual presence. His thought drew on Hasidic Judaism, German Idealism, and the dialogical philosophy of Ferdinand Ebner, and shaped subsequent personalist, existentialist, and theological thought. He held a chair at the University of Frankfurt until removed by the Nazi regime in 1933, after which he taught Jewish adult education in Germany before emigrating to Palestine in 1938. He held the chair of social philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1938 until his retirement.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Austrian-Israeli
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Jewish, Continental
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Martin Buber:
“All real living is meeting.”
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Attributed to Martin Buber:
“There are three principles in a man's being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action.”
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Attributed to Martin Buber:
“When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.”
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Attributed to Martin Buber:
“The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing of one of its beings.”
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Attributed to Martin Buber:
“Solitude is the place of purification.”