Philosophic Writing as a Knowledge Method: Zambrano, Descartes and Bernhard

Abstract

Being the starting point María Zambrano’s analysis in La Confesión: Género Literario (1943), I will examine the different conception of the philosophical writing underlying two methodological strategies, namely: that represented by what Maria Zambrano called ‘confession’ on the one hand, and that followed by the Cartesian method, on the other. First, I will study the status of the writing in the French philosopher’s work and, secondly, I will focus on Thomas Bernhard’s autobiography, an example of what Zambrano called confession. The status of the Discourse on the Method presents an ambiguous character, because although it seems to enroll in the confessional genre, in fact, it is playing another genre, that of the intellectual confession. In conclusion, it’s about seeing what different writing strategies are adopted in each case and, therefore, the diverse subjective status posed by these two species of the autobiographical type.