Borges and Philosophy: Self, Time, and Metaphysics

by William H. Bossart, Hans H. Rudnick (Editor)

Overview

Jorge Luis Borges is acknowledged as one of the great Spanish writers of the twentieth century. On the broader literary scene, he is recognized as a modern master. His fascination with philosophy – especially metaphysics – sets him apart from his contemporaries. Borges appreciated and formulated rigorous philosophical arguments, but also possessed the unique ability to present the most abstract ideas imaginatively in metaphors and symbols. Borges wandered among the great masters seeking a firm purchase that he could not find, and therefore expressed a nostalgia for metaphysics as he lost himself in his labyrinths. Borges and Philosophy traces Borges’ philosophical concerns in his tales, essays, and poems and argues that despite his apparent skepticism in philosophical matters, a careful reading of Borges’ texts reveals a coherent philosophical path that underlies his work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820461021
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	05/21/2003
Series:	Studies in Literary Criticism and Theory , #16
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

The Author: W. H. Bossart is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of California, Davis. His fields of specialization include metaphysics, aesthetics, German philosophy from Kant to Heidegger, and contemporary French thought. He has published numerous articles in professional journals, as well as a book, Apperception, Knowledge, and Experience (1994).

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Introduction	1
1	Philosophy and Daily Life	15
	Chance and Destiny	15
	Four Philosophical Tales	20
2	Reason and Reality	43
	Realism	45
	Nominalism	49
	Esoteric Wisdom	60
3	Time and Eternity	79
	Eternity	79
	Time	87
	Other Times	97
4	The Self and Its Avatars	109
	The Self as Aesthete	110
	The Self and Society	122
	Fate and the Individual	131
	Epiphany	141
	Failed Enlightenment	146
5	Becoming the Text	155
	Immortality	155
	Enlightenment as Destiny	160
	Enlightenment as Conversion	167
	Notes	195
	Bibliography	211
	Index	217