Javier Gomá Lanzón (b. 1965) is a Spanish philosopher, writer, and essayist whose work bridges philosophical inquiry and literary expression. His book Universal concreto. Método, ontología, pragmática y poética de la ejemplaridad (translated here with the title “Concrete Universal: Exemplarity’s Method, Ontology, Pragmatics, and Poetics”) is, in his words, the one he “always wanted to write.” In it, Gomá critiques philosophy’s growing empiricism and argues for its fundamentally literary nature, returning to the discipline’s foundational questions: What is there in the world, and what do we do with what there is?
This translation presents two integral sections from the first part of the book—“Literary Philosophy” and “Worldly Philosophy”—, along with the full table of contents. These excerpts showcase the clarity and stylistic precision that define Gomá’s writing, while inviting readers into his broader philosophical project: to reclaim philosophy as a worldly, creative, and exemplifying practice addressed to all those who have felt the stirrings of thought and wondered what to make of them. [Adapted from the introduction written by the translator, Joseph Rager].
