Yann Martel

Thou and the Art of Trade

In 1923 the German-Jewish philosopher Martin Buber published a short book called I and Thou. It's a book about dialogue and relation, about how human beings relate with the world, whether the natural world of rocks, plants and animals, our fellow human beings, or God, whom Buber understood in the broadest, most ecumenical terms.

One key sentence in the book has stayed with me my whole life: "Everything is meeting."

Buber submitted that our relations with the world could be categorized in two ways: as reflecting an I-It relation, or an I-Thou relation. Each relation is not just a posture or attitude, but a mode of existence.

The I-Thou relation is the greater relation. In its fullest embodiment, Buber imagined it as the relation a person would have with God, something experienced with the fullness of one's being. A great love or a deep friendship would be more usual examples of an I-Thou relation. Such a relation is characterized by engagement, intensity, mutuality, presentness, trust, totality. It is an encounter that is truly significant, that is touched by grace.

The I-It relation involves a lesser or more partial involvement, in which only a part of oneself is given to the other. The It in question is not an object necessarily. In human terms, it is most often a role played. The relations between teachers and students, doctors and patients, priests and parishioners, salespeople and customers, bosses and employees would all be I-It relations. The I-It relation is characterized by utility, design, purpose, calculation.