Martin Buber and his Proposal of a Dialogical Authority

Abstract

This essay studies Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy in order to enrich the concept of “authority”. The proposal is produced by the encounter between philosophy and Judaism. The peculiarity in the concept of “authority” in Buber’s thought is determined by this intersection. The encounter between Judaism with Philosophy and Judaism with Christianity will be analyzed in this article. According to Buber Ethics is joined with the concept of “authority” and it is here where Ethics begins to function as authority, from the perspective of Judaism thought from the Occidental point of view. However, the binomial “I-You” as a sign and as a reality allows the entrance of the concept of “authority” with the meaning of offering happily oneself to serve the others.