Abstract

Martin Buber (1878–1965) is best known for his philosophy of dialogue, or the “I‐Thou relationship,” especially as expressed in his classic I and Thou (Buber 1958). He is also known as a philosopher of religion, but he is not a theologian. Perhaps above all he is a philosophical anthropologist – one concerned for the wholeness and uniqueness of the human. Certainly his two basic words – I‐Thou (the relationship of mutuality, directness, presence, and openness) and I‐It (the subject‐object relation of knowing and using) – provide us with no metaphysics or world‐view that can be understood apart from philosophical anthropology.