Dialogical Existence seen as a Social Relation and its Impact to the Life with Diversity

Abstract

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pepsi-2016-0008

This article compares the philosophical concept of dialogical existence of Martin Buber with the sociological one from Pierpaolo Donati, which put its focus on the phenomena of social relationship.

After a short introduction in the discussion of the concept of dialogue in different sciences, the first paragraph will deal with the concept of “social relationship” by Pierpaolo Donati. It gives a short overview of its main statements, characteristics and its placing in the contemporary sociological discussion. The second chapter will present the basic ideas of the concept of “dialogical existence” from Martin Buber, showing his differentiation of various types of dialogue as well as the characteristics of the two basic relationships “I-THOU” and “I-IT”.

The common points and the differences of these two concepts are presented in a third part. The outdrawn similarities leads to the conclusion that, even if both concepts are not concurrent, the “dialogical existence” can be seen as one form of “social relationship.

The dialogical method of the Focolare Movement is presented in a forth part. It is a concrete example of how the “dialogical existence” can forge in a “social relationship” with special features and gives a glance on how the two concepts could be connected with each other.

Connecting theories from different fields of research and concrete examples, this article wants to give a contribution to a wider discussion of the concept of dialogue.