The Primacy Of Individualism In I And Thou By Martin Buber

The problem with religious and secular worldviews in Martin Buber’s I and Thou is that their conceptions of the highest good, in other words, the possibility of loving well, are clouded by teleological ways of interaction. For Buber, the possibility of loving well, an authentic existence, lies in one’s relation to God but God is only relatable through relations with other people. In this essay, I argue that Buber responds adequately to the problem posed by modern religion and society by providing a dualistic framework which balances teleological and relational modes of existence. The first section of this paper will unpack how Buber problematizes the primacy of teleological modes of relation in modern society and religion. From there, I will

Buber’s solution also speaks to modern individualism in secular and religious spheres with just as much power as when it was written. In his introduction to I and Thou, Walter
Kauffman wrote that “[the book] speaks to those who no longer believe but who wonder whether life without religion is bound to lack some dimension,” (Kauffman, p. 32). In a time when religious dogmatism seems more anachronistic than ever, non-religious alternatives have taken their place, be it the nation, the stock market, the dollar. Many of us watch in despair as appeal to both religion and nation seem to yield fulfillment, yet we are still of unsure where to take questions of our existence, we still feel that our life
“lacks some dimension.” When we take a moment and sit with Buber’s words, we can see that these systems mistake an It for a You and that we, immersed in the world of things, of use and experience, look to these systems to curb our anxiety over our lack of relationality. Therefore, we begin to avoid prescriptive solutions to this issue, learning not to flee from the unstable world of relation in favor of the I and It