Literary Philosophy
Jorge Luis Borges
The Architect of Infinite Labyrinths
Borges wrote stories that are really philosophical arguments in disguise — about infinity, knowledge, time, identity, and the limits of any system of classification. Reading him is the experience of ideas becoming sensory. If you have ever felt that the architecture of a concept is more interesting than the concept itself, or that a library is a kind of labyrinth, he will feel like coming home. The shortest path to understanding what he does: read 'The Library of Babel' and see if the world looks different afterward.
infinity and labyrinthsthe architecture of ideasthe limits of classificationtime and identitythe library as universe
Where to Start Reading
Ficciones
The essential collection. 'The Library of Babel' and 'The Garden of Forking Paths' are the entry points — philosophical arguments in the form of perfect short stories.
The Aleph
The deeper collection — 'The Aleph' itself is the most precise image ever written of what it would mean to see everything simultaneously.
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”