ABSTRACT
Georg Simmel lectured on the significance of the Zwischenmenschliche, the interhuman, and proposed that the forms of social interaction should be examined by contemporary sociology. Martin Buber's seminal ideas were developed in various ways by some of the most creative minds in philosophy and theology. His colleague Franz Rosenzweig focused on ways in which dialogue helped to fashion the self and how participation in dialogue served to produce redemptive communal consequences. The transformation of Buber's perspective from being centered on the personal self to being centered on mutually respectful social interaction doubtless drew on other elements. The most profound source of that change arguably was the impact of the so-called Great War. The subject demands that the author distinguish different forms of dialogical interaction. Some kinds of dialogue can actually involve conflict. Following World War II, Continental philosophers of the dialogical tradition developed theories of communication that resonated with the thoughts of American pragmatist philosophers.
