The Uniqueness of Martin Buber

AT THIS NEAR JUNCTURE of the two millennia, Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue, contained in his seminal work, I and Thou (1923), projects itself upon our consciousness with a profound awareness of its prophetic implications. Buber in his milieu was concerned with the eclipse of God, the encroachments of science, and the alienation of the individual from his spiritual essence. Newly developed disciplines had been carving out special spheres dismembering man through the microscope of scientific objectivity. Now, in the last decade of this century, similar concerns assail us in a more intense degree. The idols of the cyberspace and the incubus of high-tech communication pose a subversive threat to Buber’s sphere of genuine meeting. The nature of this threat lies in the paradox of being able to interact globally, instantaneously, and anonymously, permitting individuals to interface while rendering each of them in remote isolation. In no small measure, the reality of the “between” in Buber’s I-Thou relation has been usurped by the virtuality of the computer screen with no glimpse through to the Eternal Thou.