Philosophy and Judaic Pattern in the Thinking of Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas

Abstract

M. Buber and Levinas develop two Jewish philosophical systems, which are constituted by the meeting of the two traditions: the philosophical and the religious one. Beyond the evidently particular configuration, the relational principle theorized by the two thinkers has as the unity element the valuation of a Biblical archetype. Our analysis deals with the relational principle as Judaic pattern in Buber’s and Levinas’ thinking. We can observe that each of the two authors proposes us a system that relies on the dual structure of the human world. Its archetype is revelational in nature, similar to the one disclosed by the Mount Sinai theophany.