La metafísica idealista en los relatos de Jorge Luis Borges

Abstract

One of the major objectives of this thesis is the investigation of a variety of the philosophical and mystical sources detectable in Borges (above all : Heraclitus, Plato, Plotinus, Berkeley, Hume, Schopenhauer and, through the latter, the Hinduism and the Buddhism, Nietsche, the Kabbalah and others) parallel to the observation and description of the way the writer carries out his extraordinary literary transformation and dramatization of the concepts deriving from these philosophical systems. Consequently, the attention is focused on the totality of the metaphysical sources, which guides to the conclusion that the idealistic currents predominate clearly over the materialistic and the objectivist ones. However, this does not mean that it is legitimate to call Borges an idealist. The idealism undoubtedly does exercise a powerful aesthetic attraction on the writer, yet, it is but a "mental stage" in his speculative itinerary, thanks to which he overcomes the materialism but which, on his own turn, is overcome by nihilism and skeptisism being at a constant growth throughout Borges' literary career.

Date of Award	6 Jul 2001
Original language	Undefined/Unknown
Supervisor	Helena Usandizaga Lleonart (Director)