Encounter and Embodiment: Martin Buber's Philosophical Anthropology Reconsidered

Abstract

In my dissertation, I argue that Buber’s 1938 lectures on philosophical anthropology, The Problem of the Human Being, are a crucial resource for understanding the relationship between Buber’s philosophy of dialogue and his writings on Judaism. I show that Buber’s critique of collectivism and individualism in social and political theory and philosophy of culture is part of his broader project of arguing that Western thought, and in particular German philosophy, have ignored the spiritual teachings of Judaism to its detriment. I demonstrate the link between Buber’s philosophical account of dialogue as a genuine relationship that grounds community and an embodied conception of holiness he found in classical Jewish texts. For Buber, the essentially Jewish idea that a genuine relationship with other involves their whole, embodied reality could serve as a spiritual counter to both social alienation and totalitarian politics in modern life. While I question both Buber’s essentialist methodological approach to the history of Judaism and aspects of his philosophical account of dialogue, I find his project of fusing social and spiritual renewal to be instructive for contemporary religious thought, social and political theory.