Martin Buber’s most influential philosophic work, I and Thou, is based on a distinction

between two word-pairs that designate two basic modes of existence: I-Thou” (Ich-Du) and “I-
It” (Ich-Es). The “I-Thou” relation is the pure encounter of one whole unique entity with another
in such a way that the other is known without being subsumed under a universal. Not yet subject
to classification or limitation, the “Thou” is not reducible to spatial or temporal characteristics. In
contrast to this the “I-It” relation is driven by categories of “same” and “different” and focuses
on universal definition. An “I-It” relation experiences a detached thing, fixed in space and time,
while an “I-Thou” relation participates in the dynamic, living process of an “other”.

The fundamental beliefs of Buber’s I-Thou philosophy are the reality of the I-Thou relation
into which no deception can penetrate, the reality of the meeting between God and man which
transforms man’s being, and the reality of the turning which puts a limit to man’s movement
away from God. On the basis of these beliefs Buber has defined evil as the predominance of the
world of It to the exclusion of relation, and he has conceived of the redemption of evil as taking
place in the primal movement of the turning which brings man back to God and back to
solidarity of relation with man and the world. Relation is ‘good’ and alienation ‘evil.’ Yet the
times of alienation may prepare the forces that will be directed, when the turning comes, not only
to the earthly forms of relation but to the Eternal Thou.