Abstract

This paper attempts a renewed understanding of the concept of poetic reason, key in María Zambrano’s philosophical writings, from a hermeneutical approach. Poetic reason might be seen in this light as a gateway to a different kind of rationality, one that might help to enrich its ontological and anthropological implications, and overcome the hubris that has been historically ingrained in this concept. The paper is structured in three parts: in the first one, an attempt will be made to show a reform of the understanding, which involves human life integrally, in such a way that reason transcends and makes it possible to understand the historical complexity of man and the urgent need to return to oneself. In the second, special attention will be focused on Zambrano’s new humanism, based on poetic and merciful reason, as an antidote to the ghost of war. And the third section delves in the work Claros del bosque to point to the reader the three hermeneutical moments that they will possibly face when trying to understand the realm of poetic reason.