10. Taylor Quinn, Outside Reading, I-Thou and I-It, 4/18/11

Taylor Quinn, Outside Reading, I-Thou and I-It, 4/18/11

I read an article entitled “The Two I-Thou Relations in Martin Buber’s Philosophy” by Stuart Charme. A person can either view someone else in two ways. They can view another as “object” or as “subject”. The objective view is a total self or ego centered view. This is also known as an “I-It relationship”. In this relationship, the “subject tries to, or actually does, use, dominate or manipulate another as if he were an object”. The subjective view, or the “I-Thou relationship” is the opposite. It is “characterized by mutuality. Subject faces subject (on the same level, as it were), as they reach out, one to another, from the core of their being”. When one takes of the view of the I-Thou relationship, they are able to have an “intersubjective” moment with the other, or an encounter.

I do my best to view people in an I-Thou relationship. That is how I believe that Christ viewed people. Seeing them as someone like me with thoughts, feelings, emotions, and spirit. If treat someone in an I-It relationship then I treat them as objects. This a very inhuman way to view people.