Attitude Problem
The fundamental difference between the attitudes of modern humans as regards the surrounding world is this: “for modern, scientific man [and woman] the phenomenal world is primarily an “It”; for ancient—and also primitive –man [and woman] it is a “Thou”.
Primitive humans started with what is called ‘speculative thought’, which is considered to be–direct knowledge without evident rational thought or inference that sometimes exists only in the imagination. Speculative thought transcends experience but only as a means to clarify experience.
Speculative thought is more than fantasy in that it never breaks entirely from experience. It might be said to be “once removed” from direct experience.
For us moderns to comprehend ‘Thou’ we might think of our experience when we confront unexpectedly another creature. At first perception our response is essentially passive and receptive. There is an impression that is direct, emotional, and inarticulate. This is a form of experience which we share with all animals.
We see this when we watch a movie when the hiker encounters the coyote suddenly, we see and recognize why it is so that both parties pause in a moment of ‘shock and awe’ (with less emphasis on dread and more on receptivity). When we meet someone new suddenly there is a moment of receptivity, likewise between all animals.
When encountering a fellow creature “a man or an animal is essentially passive, whatever his subsequent action may turn out to be. For at first he receives an impression. This type of knowledge is therefore direct, emotional, and inarticulate.”
‘Thou’ revels its individuality, all experience of ‘Thou’ is very unique –‘Thou’ is not confronted with intellectual detachment, as when we encounter an object, but is experienced as life confronting life involving every faculty wherein both parties share in a reciprocal relationship. Every thought, act, and feeling is subordinate to this experience.
All experience of ‘Thou’ is highly individual; primitive man’s accounts of such an experience as action and must take the form of a story–myth instead of analysis.
Martin Buber describes the ‘I-It’ relationship with the world as a one of separation; wherein the person and the world are completely separate entities. The ‘I-Thou’ relationship is one of intimate and substantively integrated wholeness.
I think that the ‘I-Thou’ may be an important new way of our contemplating the world. Do you think that such a relationship might lead us to a solution to our environmental problems?
Quotes and ideas from “The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man” by Frankfort, Wilson, Jacobson, and Irwin.
