“Nueva refutación del tiempo" [A New Refutation of Time] and the Portrayal of an Ironic Fate”

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2024

Disciplines

English Language and Literature

Abstract

When the author was writing her PhD dissertation on David Hume at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Madrid, back in 1981, she was unable to believe that a given literary production would shed so much light not just on Hume, but on the whole history of philosophy. It wasn’t until she came to the United States and plunged completely into Borges’s writings that she realized the magnitude of his erudition and philosophical competence. After completing her dissertation on Borges and Hume at the University of Virginia, she continued working on the scope and nature of Borges’s skepticism. Taking Kemp Smith’s interpretation of Hume (a critic cited in “Nueva refutación del tiempo” [A New Refutation of Time]), this chapter focuses on the role that both Hume’s skepticism and naturalism play in “Nueva refutación del tiempo,” a capital essay in Borges’s writings that should be fully viewed as a significant contribution in contemporary philosophy. --From publisher

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