Dialogue as a Trans-disciplinary Concept

Martin Buber’s Philosophy of Dialogue and its Contemporary Reception

Author: Paul Mendes-Flohr Series: Studia Judaica

Dialogue as a Trans-disciplinary Concept

This volume of essays takes as its point of departure Martin Buber's principle of dialogue, which he applied as a comprehensive hermeneutic method for the study of various cultural phenomena. The volume critically evaluates the methodological purc

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This volume of essays constitutes a critical evaluation of Martin Buber’s concept of dialogue as a trans-disciplinary hermeneutic method. So conceived, dialogue has two distinct but ultimately convergent vectors. The first is directed to the subject of one’s investigation: one is to listen to the voice of the Other and to suspend all predetermined categories and notions that one may have of the Other; dialogue is, first and foremost, the art of unmediated listening. One must allow the voice of the Other to question one’s pre-established positions fortified by professional, emotional, intellectual and ideological commitments. Dialogue is also to be conducted between various disciplinary perspectives despite the regnant tendency to academic specialization. In recent decades‚ an increasing number of scholars have come to share Buber’s position to foster cross-disciplinary conversation, if but to garner, as Max Weber aruged, “useful questions upon which he would not so easily hit upon from his own specialized point of view.” Accordingly, the objective of this volume is to explore the reception of Buber’s philosophy of dialogue in some of the disciplines that fell within the purview of his own writings: Anthropology, Hasidism, Religious Studies, Psychology and Psychiatry.

About the Author

Paul Mendes-Flohr, Divinity School, University of Chicago, USA.

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This volume of essays constitutes a critical evaluation of Martin Buber's concept of dialogue as a trans-disciplinary hermeneutic method. So conceived, dialogue has two distinct but ultimately convergent vectors. The first is directed to the subject of one's investigation: one is to listen to the voice of the Other and to suspend all predetermined categories and notions that one may have of the Other; dialogue is, first and foremost, the art of unmediated listening. One must allow the voice of the Other to question one's pre-established positions fortified by professional, emotional, intellectual and ideological commitments. Dialogue is also to be conducted between various disciplinary perspectives despite the regnant tendency to academic specialization. In recent decades, an increasing number of scholars have come to share Buber's position to foster cross-disciplinary conversation, if but to garner, as Max Weber aruged, "useful questions upon which he would not so easily hit upon from his own specialized point of view." Accordingly, the objective of this volume is to explore the reception of Buber's philosophy of dialogue in some of the disciplines that fell within the purview of his own writings: Anthropology, Hasidism, Religious Studies, Psychology and Psychiatry.