Martin Buber

Martin Buber
מרטין בובר
Born8 February 1878
Died13 June 1965(1965-06-13) (aged 87)
Jerusalem, Israel
RelativesJudith Buber Agassi
Education
EducationUniversity of Vienna
University of Leipzig
University of Zurich
University of Berlin
Academic advisor
Wilhelm Dilthey
Philosophical work
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
Continental philosophy
Existentialism
Neo-Hasidism
InstitutionsUniversity of Frankfurt am Main
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Doctoral students
Shmuel Eisenstadt
Notable students
Amitai Etzioni
Main interests
Notable ideas
Ich-Du (I–Thou) and Ich-Es (I–It)
Philosophy of dialogue
Signature

Martin Buber (German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈbuːbɐ] ⓘ; Hebrew: מרטין בובר; Yiddish: מארטין בובער; 8 February 1878 – 13 June 1965) was an Austrian-Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship.

Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of observant Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy. He produced writings about Zionism and worked with various bodies within the Zionist movement extensively over a nearly 50-year period spanning his time in Europe and the Near East. In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du (later translated into English as I and Thou), and in 1925 he began translating the Hebrew Bible into the German language.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature ten times, and the Nobel Peace Prize seven times.

Buber in 1963