“With one’s whole being”: ‘Unity’ in I and Thou

This chapter is the first of two dedicated to the unpacking of Buber’s concept of unity. It focuses on “I and Thou” and analyzes ‘unity’ as it surfaces there in three main discussions. The first is with reference to the concept of ‘concentration’; the second with reference to the concept of decision; and the third with reference to the concept of ‘whole being’. These are analyzed in sections “(1)–(3)”, respectively. Through these discussions, the picture of the notion of unification is painted: personal unity is not a static state but a dynamic one, an act of unification; acts of unification are those performed with one’s ‘whole being’, by the unified person; and one’s unified being consists in the concentration of one’s agentic power, as well as the alignment of the body, drives, sensations, and emotions with the unified agent; unification is a dimension of action, and as such an essential feature of it.