Jackie Trono - Buber: You, Not It

In I and Thou, Martin Buber identifies the two most basic words in human language, I-It and I-You, and argues that each word carries with it an associated ontology. Those who view the world through the experience of I-It understand everything as objects for use. Those who view the world through the I-You relation encounter the external as a sacred subject.

Buber contrasts the I in the I-It with the I in the I-You. He writes,

“The I of the basic word I-It appears as an ego and becomes conscious of itself as a subject (of experience and use). The I of the basic word I-You appears as a person and becomes conscious of itself as subjectivity (without any dependent genetive). Egos appear by setting themselves apart from other egos. Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons….The purpose of setting oneself apart is to experience and use, and the purpose of that is “living” – which means dying one human life long. The purpose of relation is the relation itself – touching the You” (Martin Buber, I and Thou 112-113).

Elaborating on the distinction between viewing the world as It versus viewing it as You, Buber writes that the I in I-It is a self-absorbed ego, whereas the I in I-You is a conscientious person. This distinction can be applied as ecological perspectives. The ego who views the world as It sees it as mere resource to be exploited. On the other hand, the person who views the world as You bears a respectful relation to his environment, recognizing the relation as symbiotic.

In applying Buber’s ideas to the realm of ecology, I feel that there is a correlation between the two basic words and the two basic civilizations, primal and modern. While modern people view the world as It, primal peoples view the world as You. This interpretation would account for why modern industry has no qualms with destroying the massive forests that support our existence. They see nature as simply It, a thing with only utilitarian value. Conversely, primal people appear to have much greater respect for their surrounding ecosystems and attempt to live in harmony with them, performing sacred rites for the animals they kill and aiming to not waste anything they reap. I agree with Gary Snyder that the modern world has a lot to learn from primal people.