Here are my notes on I and Thou and Martin Buber (1878-1965). WK page number references are to Walter Kaufmann's translation of I and Thou (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970). RG page number references, when they occur, are to Ronald Gregor Smith's translation (Macmillan/Collier Scribner Classic, second edition, 1958).Comments and criticisms are welcome. Please email them to KAGAN@lemoyne.edu or mail them to me at the following address:
Rabbi Michael Kagan
Dept. of Philosophy
Le Moyne College
Syracuse, NY 13214-1399
There is a little Hebrew in these notes. To view the Hebrew, I recommend you download webfont.exe for Windows from
http://www.stanford.edu/~nadav/hebrew.html
(Note: these notes last received minor revisions in August, 2002)
The post Cartesian situation, Humean and Kantian responses, the separation of the realms (philosophy and habit for Hume, the phenomenal and noumenal for Kant). The imminent Hegel (1770-1831),and the existential aftermath (Kierkegaard, 1813-55).
Review the Cartesian argument [refer students to my DESCARTES NOTES ],then the line through Berkeley (1685-1753), Hume (1711-76), and Kant (1724-1804) refer students to my noteson Kant . Hegel (1770-1831),(Kierkegaard, 1813-55). and Buber's friend Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929)[See Arnold Betz's Rosenzweig page at http://divinity.lib.vanderbilt.edu/HomePage/rosenzw/rosenart.html].
Note the cultural and religious parallels and separations. The rise of nationalism and WW1 (1914-1918). (The works of Hesse, Freud, Agnon; Joyce's Ulysses out in about 1922; Gibran's Prophet out in 1923.)
Baal Shem Tov (c. 1698-1760),
central theme of serving G always (all one's deeds).
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Buber's religious sources include
Taoism and Hasidic Judaism.
Rabbinic Judaism distinguishes relationships and responsibilities holding
between a person and creation (discuss in terms of blessings, protection of land, trees, and animals)
äàéøáì íãà ïéá
between person and person
åøáçì íãà ïéá
and between a person and the Divine
íå÷îì íãà ïéá
This division structures I and
Thou, as I read the work. (Note the parallel division in Taoism as Smith
interprets it, and remember that Buber did work in this area; see Schmidt's
Buber page, cited below, note 2.)
According to Maurice Friedman in Martin Buber: The Life of
Dialogue (NY: Harper & Row, Publishers Harper Torchbook edition,
1955, 1960, p. 27). "The influence of Hinduism and Buddhism was most
important at an early period. That of Taoism came slightly later and has
persisted into Buber's mature philosophy."
Turning
(äáåùú, teshuvah, often translated as "repentance" )
In Judaism, "the gates of repentance(teshuvah )are always
open." [see note 3] At any time a person can turn directly to
God and away from her/his sins. It is always possible to turn and change
one's life. See Walter Kaufmann's translation of I and Thou
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,1970, pp. 35-37).
WK p. 53/RG p. 3. twofold attitude and the 2 yetsers; discuss the basic rabbinic concepts of yetser tov and yetser rah, relate these to the obligation to love G with all one's heart in the interpretation of the shema and veahavta(Deut. ch. 6).
WK p. 54, first new section/RG p.3 s2 ('s'plus a numeral will indicate section markers in the text). Discuss the primacy of relations and relation al quality of the "I" of the combinations I-Thou and I-it. Discuss "whole being" in context of above comment.
WK p. 54, center/RG p.4 sI. Discuss the Hebrew word davar (øáã ), and the shehakol blessing.
WK p. 55, center - p. 57/RG p4-6 top. The difference between the "experience" world in terms of objectification and separation and the world of relation.
WK pp. 56ft- 57/RG p. 6, new section. Discuss the three spheres and the three betweens of I and Thou and rabbinic Judaism indicated above; in each of the three we "address the eternal thou." Discuss in terms of the source of the world, and of the world as revelation, and in terms of the psalmist and Maimonides.
WK pp. 57-59/RG p. 7. The tree. äàéøáì íãàïéá Discuss in detail. Discuss the combination of will and grace involved. Make sure to discuss that there is nothing which needs to be not seen or forgotten for this to occur.
WK pp. 59-60. RG p. 8. The person, åøáçì íãà ïéá, the shift in center. Non-Awareness of the relation does not preclude. Discuss,
WK pp. 60-61/RG p. 9-11. Art. Describe some of the risks and responsibilities of the artist in scripture and subsequent Jewish tradition. Compare with Islam.
WK p. 62, center: "All actual life is encounter"; translated in RG p. 11s1. as "All real living is meeting" the resemblance of whole action to suffering; not finding through seeking. Discuss.
WK p. 62ft/RG p.11s2. The directness of the relation. Discuss in terms of what is not there as means;
WK p. 63ft/RG p. 13 discuss enduring present, as opposed to the pastness of objects (compare with Whitehead's "objective immortality")
WK p. 64-65/RG pp. 13-14, new section, the ideas. Ask what students make of this.
WK pp. 65-67, esp. 66/RG pp. 14-15 Love as the responsibility of an I for a You. The connection between being responsive to do (äùòð), listening(being directly open to another (òîùðå) and loving/taking responsibility as an I for a Thou (úáäàå). Compare with M. Scott Peck's work in The Road Less Traveled.
WK p. 67, center/RG p. 15ft (see also end of 1st paragraph in WK, p. 157; RG p.109). The mutualness of relation. See Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, Book I, XXVII, "Not to value the teacher/ Nor to Love the material/Though it seems clever, betrays great bewilderment." (Trans. D.C. Lau, Penguin, 1963, p. 84.)
WK pp. 68-69/ RG pp. 16-18, the going back into it.
WK p. 69, new section/RG p. 18,
new section, note the allusion in the first sentence. Discuss the
Whorf-Sapir hypothesis.
WK pp. 69-74/R G pp. 18-22, discuss the experience described.
WK p. 74/RG pp. 22-23, the exile from the tree to the tree of experience. Note that the subsequent pages (see, e.g., the second new section in WK p. 75/the first new section on p. RG p. 24) indicate that MB may be alluding to the Eden story.
WK p. 76/RG pp. 24-28, the experience of the child parallels the human experience.
WK pp.84-85/ RG pp. 33-34.
The temptation to moving into it permanently. Its ultimate
insufficiency for being fully human.
WK pp. 87-89/RG pp. 37-39 The augmentation of the world of it; discuss in terms of the temptation discussed at the end of part one. Consider the ultimate dystopic consequences in fact(20th century totalitarianism) and fiction (e.g., the World of It in Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time).
WK p. 89-92/RG pp. 39-42. The role of and importance of silence, the role of speech, knowledge, art, and pure action/effective action (compare with wu-wei in Lao Tzu, Akiba's "This too is Torah an d I must learn it," and the concern with how the master ties his shoes in Hasidut). WK p. 92 end of first paragraph/RG p. 41 ft., the dangers of institutionalizing the teaching. (Also discuss the dangers of not doing so).
WK pp. 92-95/RG pp. 43-46 Institutions and reactions. P. 45, the basis of community in a living mutual relation with a living center. Pp. 45-46. Marriage, discuss this interpretation, explain the status of such a relationship in traditional Jewish evaluation of spiritual progress; briefly describe Buber's critique of Kierkegaard in Between Man and Man where Buber argues contra K that the beloved partner is not the obstacle but the way.
[Note, subsequent page references to WK's translation, unless otherwise indicated.]
WK p. 95ft,ff., I-It and evil;
compare to the traditional treatment of the "evil inclination" in
rabbinic psychology.
Show how this is supported by the last sentence on p.97(and the middle of p.
101); here MB relates this (I think) both to the individual and to the
community.
WK p. 100-101, new section; discuss the realm of causality, relate this to Kant. Discuss psychological determinism and Buber's response involving freedom fate and destiny
p. 102 Discuss sparks in Hasidism.
107--"To gain freedom from the belief in unfreedom . . ." Discuss parallel and possible connection to William James; esp. given Buber's work in Ecstatic Confessions.
wu-wei 109, 111, (hitting bottom involved),112 nb.157
110-111, compare with the Hasidic tale distinguishing heaven and hell.
112 center, the difference between Egos and Persons. 113 top, connection here to Eternal.
113ft-114ff self deception
115 I as shibboleth of humanity; discuss. [see note 4 for definition and etymology] Consider his treatment of Socrates, etc. through p.117, and to 119.
121 world pictures. 122 the deeper horror.
128 on seeking God
130 on proper relationship between God and person
131 prayer and sacrifice vs. magic
131 discussion of Hinduism and Buddhism
134 Buber's own experience
135, the everyday quality
138-39 one criterion for true teachers
139 view on reincarnation, point out that this found in Jewish
mysticism.
144 his response to Kant
145 the cat
147-148 more on relationship between God and person
149 Teshuvah
151 relationship between human couple and person with God
discussed. Talk about criterion of
Jewish mystical teacher and the book Song of Songs,
152 Buber's critique of "mere spirituality" as
psychic isolation.
153 criticism of Scheler and those who think God can ever
properly be an object.
156 One's relationship to God reflected in one's other
relationships to world.
157 wu-wei again
158 similar to William James with respect to the
More.
158ff 3 elements of revelation:
the abundance of actual reciprocity
the inexpressible confirmation of meaning
the meaning is of this life and this world and cannot be
interpreted nor "experienced" but
rather is there to be done.
160, (and Bergman on Buber in his Faith and Reason (p. 91) on
Ex. 3:14 "
168 his concluding prophecy in standard prophetic warning and
comfort form.
Buber on Buber 171ff
174 appeal to reader's relationships
177 assertion that this is not mystical
178 as it occurs in education
179 in psychotherapy
Note
3: "ïéçåúô íìåòì
äáåùú éøòù" Deuteronomy
Rabbah 2:12, as quoted the Gates of
Repentance: The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe (New
York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1978, revised 1996), unnumbered p.
ii.
Note 4: A Shibboleth is "A word or pronunciation
that distinguishes people of one group or class from those of
another"; The term derives"from Hebrew šibbolet, torrent of
water, from the use of this word to distinguish one tribe from another, who pronounced
it sibboleth (Judges 12:4-6)"; quoted from The American Heritage®
Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton
Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation.