Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 1, 2018

Aesthetics and Philosophies of Art

The Phenomenon of Inspiration in Maria Zambrano’s Aesthetics

My research on María Zambrano’s phenomenology of dreams has been going on for some years, having involved students of Clinical Psychology, researchers in the Laboratory of Sleep Studies, Chronobiology and Telemedicine at the University of Lisbon Medical School and also of the Neurology Department at Faro Hospital. The results of the applications of this theory in peoples’ lives have already been published in several articles and, finally, condensed in the book Método RVP (Raciovitalismo-Poético), Prática Filosófica no Quotidiano, Institute Piaget, Lisbon 2009. The research direction now evolves into testing Zambrano’s dream phenomenology thesis, regarding inspiration and artistic creativity. Focusing on the third stage of Zambrano’s phenomenology of the dream form - the lucidity stage - we find that the artist already knows the completion of the work still to be created, and precisely this realization of the work of art would dictate the necessary procedures for the construction of the object of art. The beginning would be informed by the end, meaning that the artist would follow information that is being supplied from the future, the already complete piece of art guiding its own creation. Exactly this paradox is how we can understand the phenomenon of inspiration in Zambrano’s aesthetics.