Thinking about democracy in turbulent times

Maria Zambrano is probably the most influential Spanish-speaking thinker of the last century. However, despite his fundamental contributions to philosophy, his political contributions have not received the editorial attention they deserve. Its originality lies in having extended the notion of democracy from a form of government to a dynamic of coexistence. Thus, democracy would not be a governmental, legal or institutional formality, but a way-of-living, a way of being with other citizens.

In this book, based on an in-depth examination of Zambrano's works, Pamela Soto García proposes a journey through a series of reading "notes" —understood in the manner of musical notes, which are not minor theorizations, but true pangs— that, like a constellation, draw the most fundamental aspects of the author's philosophy. Here theoretical and political aspects that link Zambrano with the theoretical discussions of different periods intersect, in a process that includes both the organization of the Second Spanish Republic and the experience of exile.