The relational dimension of the person in María Zambrano’s philosophy

Abstract

María Zambrano is among the most influential voices in the philosophical landscape of the 20th century. Her thought, which came to light slowly and with delayed recognition, is still highly topical today. Of great interest is her reflection on the idea of democracy in Europe, which represents an anticipatory look at many contemporary issues. As a Spanish exile and witness of the Second World War, Zambrano is, to all intents and purposes, a European citizen who recounts the agony that her distant Europe is experiencing with great passion. The attention she pays to that decadent and diseased body, as she calls it, captures an additional dimension to the historical-political one, which is nevertheless central. In describing the violence of those years, she reaps the seeds that made the emergence of a common European ground possible, and that must be nurtured again. It is not only a matter of rediscovering the cultural roots - philosophical thought and the Christian message – but also of understanding the causes of that history that became sacrificial. It is, therefore, a matter of rethinking the human in virtue of its creatural and transcendent dimension and rediscovering the common origin that makes every human being a part of the same humanity.