Musical metaphors in the philosophy of María Zambrano: rhythm

María Zambrano’s philosophy is full of references to music. The ear as a favourite sense for the exercise of analysis, music as an object of reflection in itself – in the abstract or through certain composers and works – and as a materialization of the labyrinthian nature of time, as a paradigm of the fluent nature of the psyche, as a source of metaphors par excellence. It is in this last sense that terms such as “chord”, “harmony”, “timbre” and “dissonance” appear very frequently in her writings, linked to a plurality of fields and interests, from political theory to phenomenology of the dream-form, from epistemology to literary criticism. However, among all the concepts of musical resonance that populate the Zambranian imaginary, rhythm is undoubtedly the one that occupies the place of greatest centrality in her ontology.