‘Unity’ as a Dimension of Action in ‘Images of Good and Evil’ and Concurrent Essays

This chapter, the second of two dedicated to Martin Buber’s concept of unity and its tight logical linkage with that of action, focuses on his 1952 essay “Images of Good and Evil” (IGE). In sections “(1)–(3)”, IGE’s notion of unification is laid out, and its linkage with the concept of action is demonstrated. Section “(1)” presents the linkage between Buber’s two concepts of ‘unification’ (Einheit) and ‘direction’ (Richtung), as well as between their negatives, fragmentation and arbitrariness. It reveals unification as a dimension of action, i.e., a process that occurs during—and by embarking upon—a course of action. In section “(2)”, the elements of the self that partake in the process of unification—power (Kraft), passion (Leidenschaft), and the “highest forces” (höchsten Kräfte)—are described; and the unification-direction and fragmentation-arbitrariness linkages are tightened. Section “(3)” provides further clarification through reconstructing Buber’s ontology of personhood and its hierarchical structure of the self, and inter alia resolving various issues left open in Chap. 5 . Section “(4)” shows the strong linkage that explicitly surfaces between the concepts of unification and dialogue in Buber’s essays of the IGE period.