The longevity of the words ‘I’ and ‘Thou’

Published by Greg Heffron on

Those that have taken our workshops have heard Susan Chapman speak about Martin Buber’s view of “I and Thou.” This view indicates that our conversation partners can be held in their full humanity (Thou, or “we-first”), rather than becoming an ‘It,’ which we only want to utilize to achieve our own aims. Interestingly, research has recently shown that these two words (“I” and “Thou”) have stayed relatively unchanged in root Indo European languages over 15,000 years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/words-that-last/